US politician Tom DeLay of Texas, the House of Representatives' fallen majority leader, has announced he is to withdraw from a re-election fight he was in jeopardy of losing.
Mr DeLay said he would also soon step down from the US Congress.
He insisted he did not feel defeated in the face of legal battles and blamed politics for his woes, which have included an indictment in Texas on campaign finance charges and a Capitol Hill lobbying scandal that so far has ensnared two of his former aides.
The shock announcement came 12 years after Mr DeLay helped Republicans capture control of the House. Democrats have sought to make him, and Republican ethical scandals, an issue as they try to recapture the chamber in November elections this year.
First elected in 1984, Tom DeLay was nicknamed 'The Hammer' for his hardball political tactics.
He was rebuked by the House ethics committee on three separate matters in 2004 and stepped down as House majority leader in September after being indicted.
