Former U.S Representative Tom Marino (R-Pa.) resigned from office after serving four terms and part of a fifth out of Pennsylvania’s 12th congressional district. Marino’s resignation comes just after his recent re-election in November, when he won 66 percent of the vote in PA-12 to defeat Marc Friedenberg (D), securing his fifth term in office.

Marino was most notably an early supporter of President Donald Trump when he decided to run for office and was a member of the President’s presidential transition team, providing aid and guidance to the President when he was choosing members for his administration.

“As of January 23, 2019, I am officially stepping down from Congress,” Marino said in his official resignation statement. “Having spent over two decades serving the public, I have chosen to take a position in the private sector where I can use both my legal and business experience to create jobs around the nation.”

Marino graduated from Pennsylvania State University Dickinson School of Law in 1988 and practiced law as a US attorney and district attorney. News outlets have reported that the former congressman resigned in order to join the private sector, but Marino’s office didn’t comment specifically on what he will be doing.

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf announced plans for the special election to replace Marino.

“Having heard the concerns of the county officials, I am scheduling the special election to fill the remainder of Congressman Marino’s term on May 21, 2019 to coincide with the primary election,” Wolf tweeted Jan. 24.

The district Marino has represented covers area in central and northern Pennsylvania, which was heavily in favor of  Trump in the 2016 Presidential Election and has sent Marino to Congress with relative ease in the past.

In 2016, when Marino was elected the representative of what was then the tenth congressional district of Pennsylvania, he won 70 percent of the vote.

Marino was extremely thankful in his release for those he represented and is “confident that the area will continue to thrive.”

Trump chose Marino in 2017 to be the next leader of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, known as the “drug czar.” Marino withdrew from nomination for the position when reports surfaced that while a congressman, Marino was also involved in the pharmaceutical industry. With his name so closely related to the President’s, Marino’s resignation, along with the timing of it, has made national news, as has the scheduled special election to fill his seat in Congress.

In Greene County, the issue of Marino’s resignation did not draw major thoughts, opinions or reactions from local politicians. State Senator Camera Bartolotta’s office did not respond to request for comment at the time of publication. State Representative Pam Snyder (D-Pa.), declined to comment on Marino’s resignation.