Lamar Smith won’t seek re-election to House

Rep. Lamar Smith announced Thursday he will not seek reelection to the House in 2018.

The longtime Texas Republican noted in a letter that his term as chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee will end next year.

Smith’s congressional district, which takes in parts of Austin and San Antonio as well as rural counties to the west, has been solidly Republican in the past. Mitt Romney won nearly 60 percent of the vote there in 2012.

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