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McConnell won’t seek reelection to Senate
Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell announced Thursday he won’t seek reelection next year. This ends a decades long tenure as a power broker who championed conservative causes, but ultimately ceded ground to the fierce GOP populism of President Donald Trump.
Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell won’t seek reelection next year, he told The Associated Press.
McConnell will announce his decision not to seek another term in Kentucky in a speech on the Senate floor Thursday – his 83rd birthday. First elected in 1984, McConnell said he intends to serve the remainder of his term ending in January 2027.
The decision comes after a series of medical episodes in recent years, including injuries sustained from falls and times when his face briefly froze while he was speaking.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) arrives to a news conference after a lunch meeting with Senate Republicans U.S. Capitol 26, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Mitch McConnell’s legacy
What they're saying:
"Seven times, my fellow Kentuckians have sent me to the Senate," McConnell said in prepared remarks provided in advance to the AP. "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."
Big picture view:
McConnell is the longest-serving Senate party leader in U.S. history.
McConnell’s retirement will end a decades-long tenure as a power broker who championed conservative causes but ultimately ceded ground to the fierce GOP populism of President Donald Trump. McConnell, a diehard adherent to Ronald Reagan’s brand of traditional conservatism and muscular foreign policy, increasingly found himself out of step with a GOP shifting toward the fiery, often isolationist populism espoused by Trump.
RELATED: McConnell privately called Trump a 'narcissist' and 'despicable human,' biography says
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) gives a thumbs up while arriving at the Senate Chambers on February 12, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
He's been the lone Republican "no" vote on some of Trump's key Cabinet picks, including Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He was one of three Republicans to vote against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Last week, Trump referred to McConnell as a "very bitter guy." McConnell referred to Trump as a "despicable human being" and a "narcissist" in a biography of the senator.
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He’ll be remembered as a master strategist, one in which he helped forge a conservative Supreme Court and steered the Senate through tax cuts, presidential impeachment trials and fierce political fights. His dramatic announcement comes almost a year after his decision to relinquish his leadership post after the November 2024 election. South Dakota Sen. John Thune, a top McConnell deputy, replaced him as majority leader.
"Thanks to Ronald Reagan’s determination, the work of strengthening American hard power was well underway when I arrived in the Senate," McConnell said in his prepared remarks. "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."
The Source: This report includes information from The Associated Press.