Sheriff Chad Chronister, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration, withdrew himself from consideration to lead the federal agency on Tuesday night, instead opting to remain sheriff of Hillsborough County, Florida.
In a statement post on social media on Tuesday, Chronister thanked the president-elect and called the nomination an “honor of a lifetime,” but said he was withdrawing his name from consideration.
“Over the past several days, as the gravity of this very important responsibility set in, I’ve concluded that I must respectfully withdraw from consideration,” Chronister wrote. “There is more work to be done for the citizens of Hillsborough County and a lot of initiatives I am committed to fulfilling.”
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He is the second nominee of Trump’s to withdraw his name from consideration. Former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, the president-elect’s choice for attorney general, also dropped out last month amid a firestorm of allegations.
Trump first nominated Chronister, a 30-year veteran of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, for the post on Saturday evening, citing his “countless commendations and awards for keeping his community SAFE.”
The nomination was praised by local politicians in Florida, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, but also attracted criticism from right-wing supporters of the president-elect.
As the sheriff of one of Florida’s largest counties that includes the more liberal-leaning city of Tampa, Chronister has long portrayed himself as more of a centrist. He told the Tampa Bay Times in 2019 that he was “the most Democratic of Republicans.”
Some conservatives honed in on his office’s arrest of Rodney Howard-Browne, a megachurch pastor, for leading services in the midst of the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The charges against Howard-Browne were dropped months later.
“I’m going to call ‘em like I see ‘em. Trump’s nominee for head of DEA should be disqualified for ordering the arrest a pastor [sic] who defied COVID lockdowns,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) wrote in a post on X after the nomination was announced.
Chronister also became the county’s first sheriff to attend the Tampa Pride Parade in 2018, and oversaw a LGBTQ Liasion program—seemingly progressive stances that irked a number of conservatives.
Representatives for the president-elect did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
