Update From Congressman Austria

I wanted to share with you a little more insight regarding my decision not to retire, but not to run for Congress next term.

After the 2010 census data was released, we all knew that Ohio would be losing two members of Congress and I was fully prepared to take on new territory for the 2012 elections. Based upon the 2010 census, the 7th Congressional District, the second-fastest growing district in Ohio, only needed to pick up approximately 30,000 additional Ohioans because of the district's overall growth – primarily in the Beavercreek and Pickerington areas.

On December 5th, I filed as a Republican candidate, with the maximum number of signatures from all five counties, for the new 10th Congressional District. Our campaign team and supporters began aggressively preparing for a June primary. Just a week later, after the original filing deadline, the state legislature passed a second map on December 14th that significantly changed the new 10th Congressional District. This new map includes all of Greene County, part of Fayette County, and all of Montgomery County, significantly changing the district to approximately 25% Austria's district and 75% Montgomery County, most of which is currently represented by Turner. This new map also unified all of the Ohio primary contests to a single primary election in March 2012.

This new map put us at a tremendous disadvantage of a nearly 2-to-1 vote margin and would require us to re-file once again on December 30, 2011. With only 60 days until the election, this was not the fair fight promised by all.

The state legislature's last-minute changes in the map also split up the current 7th Congressional District into the new 8th and 15th Congressional districts and thus presented me with a very difficult decision:

  1. Engage in a multi-million dollar negative primary battle in the 10th Congressional District that would have further divided the region and hurt Wright-Patterson Air Force Base; or
  2. Uproot my family and move to run in either the 8th or 15th districts. The 8th District is represented by Speaker Boehner (which was never an option) and the 15th District is represented by Congressman Steve Stivers.

As you know, my family and I made the most difficult decision we have ever made in my career and chose to focus on our current constituents and not internal party politics. Thus, at this time, I am not seeking an additional term in the U.S. Congress.

I want to be clear, with two boys still in college and another at home, this is not a retirement. I will serve out the remainder of my current term with my Ohio colleagues and use my Appropriations Committee assignment to advocate for and protect our region and state. In addition, after I leave Congress in 2013, I plan to remain politically active throughout Ohio and have not ruled out a future run for public office.

Again, I want to thank you for your friendship and support throughout the years. I would not have made it to where I am today without quality people like you on my team. I look forward to working with you over the next year in Congress and will remain active in moving our state forward with the conservative values that make Ohio and the United States strong.

May God bless you and your family.

Sincerely,

Steve Austria

P.S. I have attached recent articles from the Xenia Daily Gazette and the Dayton Business Journal that may provide more insight on my decision not to run at this time.