In letters sent Saturday to fellow House Republicans and Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, Mr. DeLay said he supported the call for an election of a new leader and was stepping aside to avoid becoming a political liability as Republicans face a determined Democratic challenge to their majority.
"The job of majority leader and the mandate of the Republican majority are too important to be hamstrung, even for a few months, by personal distractions," Mr. DeLay said in the letter to Mr. Hastert, the man he personally picked to take the speaker's job in a previous round of leadership turmoil in 1998. In his letter to the Republican conference, Mr. DeLay said he had "always acted in an ethical manner within the rules of our body and the laws of our land."
Though his allies just hours earlier had suggested Mr. DeLay would resist moves to oust him, his aides said he came to a different conclusion on his own Saturday morning in Texas as he assessed his waning support and the potential damage to House Republicans. He then telephoned Mr. Hastert to deliver his decision, according to a House leadership aide who did not want to be identified discussing private conversations.
Mr. Hastert said Republicans would hold a leadership election after they return for the State of the Union address on Jan. 31. "It is an honorable decision and the right decision for the House Republican conference," he said of Mr. DeLay's announcement. Mr. DeLay acted after a group of House Republicans on Friday began circulating a petition calling for an election to bar him from the post. The move came after the lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a former DeLay ally, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to criminal corruption charges in a case that could also involve other former senior DeLay aides.
Mr. DeLay intends to seek re-election to his seat representing the Houston suburbs and reclaim his position on the Appropriations Committee, but he will no longer wield the power that for years made him one of the most influential Republicans in the capital.
His decision immediately kicked off a potentially divisive fight over who should become the new leader - a chief face of the party as well as the senior floor strategist.
Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri, the No. 3 elected Republican who has been filling in for Mr. DeLay since his September indictment in Texas in a campaign-finance case, began rounding up support by telephone, arguing that his success in pushing through difficult budget and spending legislation in the past few months had proved his abilities and earned him the job permanently.
But Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, a well-liked lawmaker who has served in the leadership before, was expected to announce his own candidacy as early as Sunday.
Others could also throw in their names, including Representatives Mike Pence of Indiana, Mike Rogers of Michigan and Jerry Lewis of California. Should Mr. Blunt prevail in the majority leader's fight, that would create a vacancy for majority whip and lawmakers were also preparing for a potential contest for that post. Mr. Rogers was seen as a possible candidate along with Representatives Eric Cantor of Virginia, the appointed deputy whip, and Zach Wamp of Tennessee. Lawmakers and top aides said there seemed to be no mounting challenge to either Mr. Hastert or Representative Deborah Pryce of Ohio, the chairwoman of the party conference.
A White House spokeswoman, Erin Healy, reading from an official statement, said, "We respect Congressman DeLay's decision to put the interests of the American people, the House of Representatives and the Republican Party first. We look forward to continuing to work with Speaker Hastert and all House Republicans to build upon the important accomplishments we have achieved on behalf of the American people to make America safer and more prosperous."
It was not clear whether Bush administration officials played any role in pushing Mr. DeLay out, and Republicans who consulted with the White House and leadership on Capitol Hill said events had unfolded strictly within Congress.
Mr. DeLay stepped down from the post in the fall after his indictment in Texas on campaign-related charges of money laundering. But he was aggressively battling those accusations, and many of his colleagues considered the case partisan. But the Abramoff plea and the potential involvement in that case of others who had been close to Mr. DeLay shifted the political dynamic.
House Republicans have stood by Mr. DeLay, who became majority leader in 2002 after serving for years as the party whip, despite a series of rebukes by the House ethics committee and a ferocious courtship of the lobbying industry that brought him under attack for having too heavy a hand in encouraging firms to hire favored Republican lobbyists. Democrats have complained for years about Mr. DeLay's iron control of the House, his unwillingness to engage the minority party and his ethical conduct. One Democratic leader said Saturday that his decision to step down would not spare Republicans from attacks over ethics.
"The culture of corruption is so pervasive in the Republican conference that a single person stepping down is not nearly enough to clean up the Republican Congress," said Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leader.
Those backing the petition drive for a new leader had hoped that Mr. DeLay would take himself out of the fight rather than have to be forced out by his colleagues. Kevin Madden, a spokesman for Mr. DeLay, said he made his choice after talking with his staff and other advisers and weighing his options.
"He doesn't see this as being broken," Mr. Madden said. "I think it is something that he sees as being best for the conference."
