U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins visits with Statehouse tour guide Larry Wills and enjoys a piece of Kansas Day birthday cake during a visit to the Statehouse. Jenkins announced earlier this week that she is bowing out of political life and will not run for any office in 2018.

U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins on Friday explained the timing of her retirement announcement this week, saying she was under pressure from other Republicans to make a decision so they could get started on their own 2018 campaign plans.

Speaking briefly with reporters at the Statehouse Friday, Jenkins said she was “just getting a lot of pressure to run for governor and I wanted everyone to know with plenty of time to come up with a new candidate.”

She did not offer an explanation about why she chose not to run for governor. But she did reiterate her intention to bow out of politics altogether and return to work in the private sector and said she has no plans to run for public office in future elections beyond 2018.

Jenkins was at the Statehouse to attend the traditional Kansas Day festivities. But she appeared to be trying to keep a low profile, sitting in the back of the audience and stepping out to leave before the end of the event. She responded to only a few questions from reporters who caught up with her in the stairwell as she was leaving the building.

Traditionally, the governor also attends Kansas Day events at the Statehouse, but Gov. Sam Brownback was absent this year. His office said he was in Washington, D.C., Friday to join the national anti-abortion rally.

Sunday, Jan. 29, marks the 156th anniversary of the day Kansas was admitted to the union as the 34th state.

Jenkins’ announcement on Wednesday stunned many in Kansas politics, in part because it had been widely assumed that she planned to run for governor in 2018. That was suggested last year when she launched a state-based political action committee to help Republican legislative candidates, as well as her decision after the election to step down from her leadership position as vice chair of the House Republican Conference.

House Republicans, however, went through a major upheaval in 2015 when rebellious members of the caucus forced the resignation of Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, with whom Jenkins had been a close ally, and replaced him with Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.

But the timing of her announcement also raised eyebrows because it came so soon after her 2016 re-election and less than two weeks into the new Donald Trump administration. Jenkins has long been a solid supporter of many issues Trump campaigned on, including repeal of the Affordable Care Act and passage of large-scale federal tax reform.

Some have suggested that her early announcement will leave her as a lame duck during her final term in office, but Jenkins said she thinks it will put her in “a great position to get something done.”

“I can focus full-time on rolling up my sleeves and getting health care fixed and getting tax reform done, which have jurisdiction in our (Ways and Means) committee,” she said.

She also said she thinks it will enhance her power within the House, “because they know that I want to get something done and we just have two years to get it done.”