Brad Wenstrup is leaving Congress. First, he's probing the pandemic

WASHINGTON — Before he came to Congress, Brad Wenstrup was a podiatrist, a combat surgeon in Iraq, an Army Reserve officer and a candidate for Cincinnati mayor.

“It was not part of my plan, when I decided to be a doctor,” he says.

The Ohio Republican announced last fall that, like more than 40 of his House colleagues, he would retire at the end of this term rather than seek reelection. With eight months left before he goes, Wenstrup is borrowing a military term.

“It’s an after-action review,” he says of his work on the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. “We look at lessons learned, and how we can predict the next one, prepare for it, protect ourselves and maybe prevent it.”

“It’s not fishing to ask, What did you say and do during this time?” he adds, pushing back on criticism from Democrats, including ranking member and fellow doctor Raul Ruiz, who has described parts of the investigation as an “extreme fishing expedition.”

Wenstrup has lived through some of the lowest moments in recent congressional history, including the baseball practice in 2017 where a gunman opened fire. Now he says he wants to leave on a high note. “I’m going to miss a lot of the people, and I’m going to miss engaging on the issues. But I won’t miss the separation from my family.”

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Q: Why did you decide this term would be your last?

A: When I came here, I had just gotten married. Now my kids are 10 and 6, and they’re noticing, and so am I, that I’m missing a lot of things.

One morning, I’m leaving on a Monday and I said to my son, “I’ll be home Thursday night, but we’ll do FaceTime.” And he said, “OK, but I’ll still miss you.”

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