Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) announced on Wednesday that he will retire at the end of 2023, saying his “work is only getting started” in recruiting other Republicans to run for Congress.

McCarthy, 58, wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that 17 years after first running for office to serve California in the House he had “decided to depart the House at the end of this year to serve America in new ways.”

“I’m an optimist. How could I not be? I’m the son of a firefighter. For 17 years I’ve served in the same congressional seat—the same office in which I was once denied an internship. Only in America,” he wrote.

“I will continue to recruit our country’s best and brightest to run for elected office. The Republican Party is expanding every day, and I am committed to lending my experience to support the next generation of leaders.”

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