McConnell, one of the leading and most impactful GOP figures of the past half-century, revealed his decision in a floor speech in the chamber where he has served since 1985.
“Seven times, my fellow Kentuckians have sent me to the Senate,” McConnell said.
“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.”
McConnell said that he made the decision last year.
The wind-down to McConnell’s final years began when he revealed almost exactly a year ago that he would step aside as leader after leading the Senate GOP for 18 years — a record for any party leader in U.S. history. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) won a close fight to be his successor in November.
The announcement also comes on his 83rd birthday, which he noted from the outset of his speech, saying he thought it was appropriate.Roughly one-third of the Senate’s Republicans and a half-dozen Democrats sat in to listen to the address, with the chamber’s walls on the GOP side being lined by McConnell staffers. He received a standing ovation at its conclusion.
He will serve through the end of his term, meaning he will have been in office for 42 years when he departs.
In that time, he shepherded Senate Republicans through scores of political fights, including those that led to a 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court, cut taxes and kept the nation from fiscal calamity.
“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 the 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.”
