Richard Cordray will step down as the head of a controversial consumer watchdog at the end of the month amid growing speculation that he will run for governor of Ohio as a Democrat. The decision could clear the way for President Donald Trump to install his own director atop the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a regulator set up after the 2008 financial crisis to police mortgages, credit cards and other products. Cordray’s departure gives Republican lawmakers a chance to push a deregulatory agenda at an agency that they say has too much power and has burdened lenders with unnecessary red tape.