Mitch McConnell Announces He Will Not Run For Reelection

Republican Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell announced he will not seek reelection Thursday.

McConnell, 83, led the Senate Republican conference for nearly two decades until he stepped down from his leadership post at the end of the last Congress. There was widespread speculation that the former Republican leader would retire following his decision to opposeseveral of President Donald Trump’s high-profile cabinet picks and advocate against the president’s America First views.

“Seven times, my fellow Kentuckians have sent me to the Senate,” McConnell said on the Senate floor Thursday. “Every day in between I’ve been humbled by the trust they’ve placed in me to do their business here. Representing our commonwealth has been the honor of a lifetime. I will not seek this honor an eighth time. My current term in the Senate will be my last.”

“Thanks to Ronald Reagan’s determination, the work of strengthening American hard power was well underway when I arrived in the Senate,” McConnell continued. “But since then, we’ve allowed that power to atrophy. And today, a dangerous world threatens to outpace the work of rebuilding it. So, lest any of our colleagues still doubt my intentions for the remainder of my term: I have some unfinished business to attend to.”

McConnell will continue to serve as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Defense subcommittee until his retirement, giving the former GOP leader a perch to advocate for his hawkish foreign policy views.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, McConnell’s successor as leader of the Republican conference, praised the Kentucky Republican’s four decades of public service in the Senate.