Mike Gallagher (R-Wisconsin) has just announced that he will not run for re-election. He represents a safe Republican district, so that does not represent a likely target for a Democratic pick-up. Further, Gallagher just helped defeat the nonsensical attempt to impeach Alajandro Mayorkas, so he showed himself to be one of the very few House Republicans with the spine to stand up to Trump. So one might conclude that the announcement is not particularly good news. The Republican representation in the House will likely get even worse due to his replacement.
But it also means that for the rest of the year he does not have to take issues of re-election into consideration, so he can just vote in a way that seems defensible. No doubt, on many issues that is not the way I would want anyone to vote. But perhaps on some of the basic issues—defense of fundamental democratic principles and resistance to Trumpian propaganda lies—he will be able to vote his conscience. In a closely divided House—hopefully to become more closely divided after Tuesday—that could make a real difference.