NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Republican state Rep. Rick Womick, who once accused Gov. Bill Haslam of "treason" to the GOP, is announcing plans to retire this year.
The Daily News Journal of Murfreesboro reports that Womick said he wants to spend more time with his family.
Womick in 2014 mounted a challenge for the Republican nomination for House speaker, but lost that election on a 57-15 vote to incumbent Beth Harwell.
Earlier that year, Womick had labeled Haslam a "traitor to the party" after the governor's allies formed a political action committee to support opponents of his harshest GOP critics.
Womick raised eyebrows at the Legislature when he claimed at a 2013 hearing that an electromagnetic weapon had earlier been set off in Shelbyville. Officials said they had no record of an attack.