PA House Speaker Mike Turzai Resigning Speakership

HARRISBURG, PA — Pennsylvania House Speaker Mike Turzai announced Wednesday that he is relinquishing the speakers position and will leave his seat before the end of his term in December. The Associated Press reported that Turzai will resign from his House seat next week.

Turzai said in January that he would not be running for re-election.

Often mentioned as a potential gubernatorial candidate in 2022, Turzai previously said he has no current plans to seek another elected office. He said he hopes to take a position in the private sector.

Turzai, 60, has been among state government's most strident conservatives, championing restrictions on abortion rights and calling for governmental spending reductions.

An attorney who served as an Allegheny County assistant district attorney, Turzai was elected to the House in 2001. He became majority leader in 2010 and was chosen to serve as speaker in 2015.

Rob Mercuri, the Republican nominee hoping to succeed Turzai as the representative in the 28th Legislative District in Pittsburgh's northern suburbs, issued a statement praising him.

“My family and I would like to thank Speaker Mike Turzai for his long career of exemplary public service to the people of Pennsylvania and House District 28," Mercuri said. "During his more than 20 years as a public servant, Mike has taken the high road, often cutting his own path through the dense undergrowth of incivility and cynicism that sometimes pervades our modern political discourse."