Sen. Mitch McConnell is not going to search reelection in 2026, he introduced Thursday.
McConnell, who turned 83 on Thursday, has handled a collection of well being scares in recent times and has lately sparred with President Trump, although each males are Republicans.
“Seven times, my fellow Kentuckians have sent me to the Senate,” McConnell mentioned Thursday. “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.”
McConnell was first elected to the Senate in 1984. From 2007 to 2025, he was the Republican get together’s chief within the chamber, the longest time period of any get together chief within the Senate in American historical past. He handed the baton to Sen. John Thune from South Dakota originally of the present session.
Sen. Mitch McConnell is pushed in a wheelchair as he heads for votes on the Capitol on Tuesday in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Photographs)
Initially, McConnell and Trump had been allies. The Kentuckian was liable for a number of the Senate’s most consequential selections in recent times. He stonewalled then-President Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Courtroom in 2016, solely to fast-track Trump’s nomination of Amy Coney Barrett underneath comparable circumstances in 2020 to make sure a conservative excessive court docket.
When Trump was impeached twice by the Home, McConnell held Senate Republicans collectively to guarantee his acquittal in each circumstances.
However lately, McConnell has voted towards a number of Trump cupboard nominees and criticized his isolationist overseas coverage strikes. He made his private disdain for Trump clear in his personal paperwork, describing him as “this despicable human being.”
Forward of his announcement, McConnell additionally had a collection of public well being scares. He fell twice within the Capitol earlier this month, together with a tumble down some stairs after a affirmation vote.
Then-Senate Minority Chief Mitch McConnell listens throughout a information convention relating to the Senate’s well being care reform invoice on Capitol Hill on November 21, 2009 in Washington, DC. (Brendan Hoffman/Getty Photographs)
McConnell additionally fell in December 2024, March 2023 and August 2019. Twice in 2023, he appeared to freeze up whereas talking in public and needed to be awkwardly ushered away by aides.
Regardless of his clashes with the president and plans to go away public life, McConnell remained defiant as ever in Thursday’s speech.
“The Senate is still equipped for work of great consequence,” he mentioned. “And, to the disappointment of my critics, I’m still here on the job.”
