I’m in Chicago.
You are thinking of Tim Johnson, yes? What he did was win renomination in the primary and then LATER withdrew from the race (did not his resign his seat early, just quit running for reelection) allowing the GOP country chairmen to replace him on the ballot without a new primary, they chose his fellow RINO Rodney Davis.
That was indeed odious, but does not pertain to this normal pre-primary retirement.
Some people like Ginny Brown-Waite and others (like Steve Stockman) have withdrawn right before the filing deadline with a favored replacement waiting to file and giving everyone else little time to respond to the open seat. That’s bad enough, the Johnson incident was even worse , voters got no say on that one.
Frustratingly, with both the Johnson and Stockman withdrawals when they occurred, prevented credible Black Conservative successors, Erika Harold in IL-13 and State Rep. James White in TX-36.
[Voters got no say on that one.]
This is going on all over the state, and the same strategy is being done on the county level.