Bend Sen. Tim Knopp is stepping down from the helm of the Senate Republican Caucus after recently completing his final legislative session in his third term in office.

Knopp is ineligible to run for reelection after he and several other state senators passed an unexcused-absence threshold during a 42-day Senate walkout last spring. That threshold was established by voters under Measure 113, which bars lawmakers who had more than 10 unexcused absences from running for reelection the following term.

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Knopp’s successor, Daniel Bonham, R-The Dalles, said in a news release the leadership change wouldn’t have happened but for Measure 113. The change will be effective April 15.

Knopp was elected as Senate Republican Leader in 2021.

“Our caucus came together and stood our ground during the 2023 Session which resulted in a historically bipartisan 2024 Session,” Knopp said in a Thursday news release.

The 2024 session proved Knopp’s philosophy “that coming together to produce good policy for the betterment of Oregonians — instead of one side driving an uncompromising, partisan agenda — is the best way to approach policymaking,” he said.

Knopp was first elected to House District 54 in 1998, serving as House Majority Leader in 2003, and left in 2005.

“He led a successful House Republican Majority. He secured Oregon’s Kicker in the Constitution, reformed public employee retirements, extended the statute of limitations on rape crimes twice, and fearlessly defended the rule of law,” Rep. Vikki Breese-Iverson, R-Prineville, said in the news release.

After an eight-year hiatus, during which he was executive director and now vice president of the Central Oregon Builders Association, Knopp returned to the Legislature as senator for District 27 in 2012.

Bonham’s Senate District 26 includes rural Clackamas County and parts of Wasco, Hood River, and east Multnomah Counties. He was elected to Oregon House District 59 in 2018 and 2020, and to the Senate in 2022.