Rep. Francis Rooney announces his retirement on Fox News in an interview with host Leland Vittert.
Oct. 19, 2019 by David Silverberg
A day after he broke ranks with President Donald Trump and his Republican colleagues and two days after he publicly stated that he would be running again, Rep. Francis Rooney (R-19-Fla.) changed tack and announced today that he is retiring and would not be running for office again in 2020.
Rooney made his announcement and the reasoning behind it on the Fox News program “America’s News HQ” to host Leland Vittert at around 12 pm.
(The five-minute interview can be viewed in its entirety at “Rep Francis Rooney announces retirement, wants to be a ‘model for term limits.’”)
Rooney’s announcement opens the field for a wide spectrum of potential Republican candidates and should make for a lively Republican primary on August 18 of next year.
Cindy Banyai
On the Democratic side the declared candidate for Rooney’s seat is Cindy Banyai, vice president of strategy and operations at the Institute of Organization Development, a Fort Myers-based company that assists organizations in improving their management and customer service practices. Banyai is also an adjunct professor at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers.
As of this writing Banyai had not yet issued a statement on Rooney’s retirement.
On Sept. 20, Banyai authored an op-ed criticizing Rooney’s environmental record titled, “We can fight the climate change crisis in Florida and make a difference for our kids' future” that appeared in the Fort Myers News-Press.
(Much more coverage of Rooney’s retirement and the race for his seat will be coming in the days ahead.)