Republican U.S. Rep. Burgess Owens — facing a court-ordered reshuffling of Utah’s congressional boundaries that gave the state a Democrat-leaning district — announced Wednesday that he would not seek reelection this year.

Owens, Utah’s second Black member of Congress, announced his decision in a social media post, saying he got into politics six years ago to advocate for at-risk children, where he said he helped pass key pieces of legislation, with other bills still working through the process.

“Recently, I asked myself the same question that began this journey: Can I do more?” he said in the post. “After careful reflection, I have concluded that to continue this work, the next chapter of my mission would be best pursued outside elected office.”

Before politics, Owens was best known as a professional football player, who won a Super Bowl ring with the Los Angeles Raiders in 1980. He was later part of a lawsuit brought by NFL players over concussions sustained during their playing careers.

In November 2019, Owens jumped into the race for Utah’s 4th Congressional District, challenging freshman Democratic Rep. Ben McAdams. He won the Republican primary, was given a speaking slot at the 2020 Republican National Convention and went on to edge out McAdams by less than 4,000 votes.

“I came to Congress with a simple ask from my constituents: to represent Utah’s nation-leading culture of faith, family, the free market, and education,” Owens said in his announcement. “I have been proud to fight alongside President Donald J. Trump, whose leadership exposed the insidious spread of Marxism in our country and who has demonstrated that only a proud, focused, and unapologetic America can defeat it.”

Owens easily won reelection in 2022 and 2024, but last year, 3rd District Judge Dianna Gibson ruled, based on a prior Utah Supreme Court decision, that the state’s congressional boundaries were unlawfully gerrymandered and needed to be redrawn. Republican legislators tried to redo the map, but Gibson ruled it still did not pass muster and imposed another map.

The new district consists of a Democratic-leaning district in Salt Lake County, leaving three districts for the current four Republican representatives.

Maloy and Owens challenged the map in federal court last month, but a three-judge panel declined to block the map from being used in the 2026 election.

This story is breaking and may be updated.