A Republican congressman praised the value of dissent and explained his decision not to seek reelection during a Georgetown University event Sept 11. 

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), who served in the U.S. Air Force for 30 years and specializes in intelligence, has been a leading critic of his own party during his eight-year U.S. House of Representatives tenure, including vocal criticism of President Donald Trump’s second administration. Georgetown’s Free Speech Project, which researches the state of free speech across the United States, hosted the event, aiming to highlight how Bacon has been vocal about his beliefs amid increasing political polarization. 

Bacon said he believes the modern Republican Party is split and currently fighting for its future. 

“The traditional Republican views that I believe in today, that Reagan embodied, come from what Eisenhower created,” Bacon said at the event. “We’ve been that party for about 70 years: peace through strength, strong alliances, free trade, legal immigration — but today we’re split down the middle.”

“I would say today we’re having a fight for the soul of our party,” Bacon added.

Bacon said he hopes more pragmatic, moderate leaders emerge in the Republican Party, noting that his district voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris even as it voted to re-elect him during the 2024 elections.

“If you’re a pragmatic Republican that treats people decently, you want to meet in the middle to see where you can make an agreement, you can win this district,” Bacon said. “We just haven’t had it at the presidential level for a while.”

“Even many Republicans struggle with President Trump’s tone and the way he treats people,” Bacon added.

Sanford Unger, the director of the Free Speech Project who moderated the event, said the group wanted to provide Bacon the opportunity to speak about his split with Trump and his decision to step down. 

“Congressman Don Bacon, from Nebraska, attracted our attention as a member of the Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives who has shown no hesitation in speaking his own mind and dissenting from Trump administration policies,” Unger wrote to The Hoya. “This has eventually led to his decision to retire from the House, rather than fight another tough election campaign, but we wanted to give him an opportunity to explain how he had arrived at his decision.”

Bacon announced in June that he would not seek reelection, citing the difficulty of running in a purple district. He did not rule out the possibility of a future campaign for an executive office, including a governorship or the presidency.

Bacon said it was exhausting to have to fight for reelection every two years, and he wanted to spend more time with his wife, children and grandchildren.

“I’m a Republican, I’m a traditional conservative, but it’s been a 10-round boxing match every two years,” Bacon said. “I’ve been the number one Republican slotted to lose multiple times.”

“You’ve got to have a hunger to win in this district,” Bacon added.

Bacon, a retired Air Force brigadier general, first ran for Congress in 2016, winning a toss-up race against a Democratic incumbent. Since then, he has sometimes found himself at odds with the Trump administration and has been one of the most outspoken conservative critics of Trump during the President’s second term. Georgetown’s McCourt School of Public Policy, in partnership with the think tank the Lugar Center, ranked Bacon as the eighth most bipartisan congressmember in 2023.

Riz Khan (SFS ’28), who attended the event, said he was surprised at how straightforward Bacon was during the conversation.

“I was kind of shocked by how blunt he was when he was talking about how he didn’t like what Trump was doing,” Khan told The Hoya. “I wish he was more like that on a public stage.” 

“I think being around moderate politics has made me see that I don’t think that politics is just the way that we’re seeing — the two sides being polarized,” Khan added. 

During the event, Bacon cited specific policies on which he disagreed with Trump, including renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and firing a chief labor economist. 

Unger said it is important to consider various perspectives when it comes to politics and listen to more complex positions. 

“We feel it is important not to choose to hear from just majority and minority spokespersons, but also to provide a platform for more nuanced political views,” Unger wrote. 

Bacon said he will continue to be a vocal advocate for his vision of the Republican Party and the United States.

“I think in the end, we are the party that stands up to Russia, we’re a free trade party,” Bacon said. “Maybe not — we’re going to have two or three more elections here down the road and we’re going to see more, but I’m not willing to sit on the sidelines and pretend that this is alright. So that’s why I’m speaking up.”