Representative. Rico McCormick (R-GA) is ending his 12-year marriage, filing for divorce from his oncologist wife earlier this month, even as Capitol Hill sources report seeing him cozying up to another Republican lawmaker.
A petition for divorce was filed by McCormick on May 3, according to Gwinnett County court records. A mutual restraining order was filed in the case the same day.
O Daily Mail first reported the pending divorce on Thursday. Asked by the news outlet about her reasons for divorcing her husband, Dr. Debra Miller responded in a text message that she was unsure if McCormick would be “accessible.”
When pressed about the possibility of an affair hanging over their relationship, Miller responded, “You should ask Rich and his colleague,” according to the Correspondence.
Sources on the Hill told the tabloid that McCormick was caught “acting overly friendly” with Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-TX) recently. A source reported seeing the pair “holding hands under the table” at a congressional convention earlier this year, adding that they also witnessed McCormick “grab the little [Van Duyne’s] back” in the Chamber plenary during the votes.
Two other unnamed sources reported seeing Republicans holding hands in the House chamber, while a third witness told the Correspondence that they had seen Van Duyne hold McCormick’s arm as they left one of the House office buildings late at night.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Rep. McCormick’s attorney and spokesperson for comment. The spokesperson told the Correspondence that the legislator and his wife “have been separated for a long time. He has kept this private and will continue to keep his personal life out of the media spotlight.”
A representative for Van Duyne declined to comment to the news outlet.
Married since 2011, according to their social media accounts, McCormick and Miller share seven children. Van Duyne has been divorced from her ex-husband, with whom she shares two children, since 2012.
McCormick has represented Georgia’s sixth congressional district since last year. A Marine Corps and Navy veteran and emergency room doctor, he lost his first bid for elected office in 2020, losing the seventh congressional district general election to his Democratic opponent. He won handily in sixth place in 2022, however, after the district was redrawn, leaving it much more deeply red territory.
The 55-year-old has already attracted national headlines for a bizarre report earlier this year, he was witnessed doing push-ups atop the Capitol dome, hanging from a railing hundreds of feet above the ground. He later told reporters that he “used to get paid to jump out of perfectly good aircraft – that’s not dangerous at all.”
In late 2023, it was also reported that he had gotten into a physical altercation with Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) after they both acted to force votes on competing resolutions to censure Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).
After Greene accused McCormick, without naming him, of shaking his shoulders, he said Political which he intended as a “friendly gesture”.
“I told her, ‘At least we can have an honest discussion,’ to which she said she didn’t like that,” he explained. “So I immediately apologized and haven’t spoken to her since.”
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