WASHINGTON — Rep. Steve Stivers, an Ohio Republican, said Monday he would depart Congress next month to take a lobbying job.
He plans to join the Ohio Chamber of Commerce as president and CEO, Stivers said on Twitter.
The move comes amid speculation that Stivers might run for the state’s open Senate seat in 2022, and after his campaign disclosed that it had hauled in nearly $1.4 million in the first quarter of this year.
“Throughout my career, I’ve worked to promote policies that drive our economy forward, get folks to work, and put our fiscal house in order,” Stivers said in his announcement. “I’m excited to announce that I will be taking on a new opportunity that allows me to continue to do that.”
Stivers chaired House Republicans’ campaign arm in the 2018 election cycle, when Democrats reclaimed the majority, and he did not seek a second term running the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Stivers at times clashed with the extreme right-wing of his own party and, during the Trump era, decried a lack of civility in the nation’s politics. “Our politics have gotten very partisan and personal,” Stivers said in 2018, noting his effort with fellow Ohio Rep. Joyce Beatty, a Democrat, in a Civility Caucus. The point of that caucus, he said in a news release at the time, aimed “to show people there is a better way and to help all 300 million Americans understand there is a way you can disagree without being disagreeable.”
He was first elected in 2010 and voters in the 15th District sent him back to Congress in November; he won by more than 63%. He serves on the House Financial Services Committee, which oversees the nation’s banking and housing sectors. It’s a panel that not only sets up lawmakers to raise campaign money but also can position them for lucrative gigs after Congress.
“Rep Stivers is a great get for the Ohio Chamber,” said lobbying headhunter Ivan Adler, who runs the recruiting firm Ivan Adler Associates. “His Financial Services Committee experience will come in handy when advocating for their issues.”
The previous head of the Ohio Chamber, Andrew E. Doehrel, who announced his retirement last year, made $570,000, according to 2018 tax documents filed by the organization.
Though it’s unusual for sitting lawmakers to depart Capitol Hill early for a lobbying job, it does happen. Then-Rep. Pat Tiberi, another Ohio Republican, left Congress early to take the reins of the Ohio Business Roundtable in January 2018.
