Mitch McConnell to Retire

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will announce Thursday that he won’t seek reelection next year, reports the Associated Press.

McConnell, the longest-serving Senate party leader in U.S. history, chose his 83rd birthday to share his decision not to run for another term in Kentucky and to retire when his current term ends. He informed The Associated Press of his decision before he was set to address colleagues in a speech on the Senate floor.
His announcement begins the epilogue of a storied career 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.

“Seven times, my fellow Kentuckians have sent me to the Senate,” McConnell will say according to prepared remarks his team provided to the Associated Press. “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, first elected in 1984, intends to serve the remainder of his term ending in January 2027. The Kentuckian has dealt with a series of medical episodes in recent years, including injuries sustained from falls and times when his face briefly froze while he was speaking.
The senator plans to deliver his speech in a chamber the famously taciturn McConnell revered as a young intern long before joining its back benches as a freshman lawmaker in the mid-1980s. 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.
McConnell’s looming departure reflects the changing dynamics of the Trump-led GOP. He’s seen his power diminish on a parallel track with both his health and his relationship with Trump, who once praised him as an ally but has taken to criticizing him in caustic terms.

McConnell has been making headlines recently for all the wrong reasons. He voted against the confirmation of Pete Hegseth as defense secretary, Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as HHS secretary. The Senate is expected to vote on Kash Patel’s nomination Thursday, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he votes against him as well.

Earlier this month, he also suffered another fall, which confined him to a wheelchair. McConnell has a history of falls, including a wrist sprain and facial injury at a GOP luncheon in December and a more serious fall in 2023 that sidelined him for weeks and fueled speculation about his resignation. McConnell has also experienced public freeze-ups.

In Kentucky, McConnell’s departure will mark the loss of a powerful advocate and will set off a competitive GOP primary next year for what will now be an open Senate seat. Kentucky Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, seen as a rising star in his party for winning statewide office in Republican territory, has said he has no interest in the Senate, though he is widely viewed as a contender for higher office.
McConnell still champions providing Ukraine with weapons and other aid to fend off Russia’s invasion, even as Trump ratchets up criticism of the country and its leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The senator plans to make it clear Thursday that national defense remains at the forefront of his agenda.
“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.”

Last week in a press briefing from the Oval Office, Trump dismissed McConnell as mentally unfit and politically ineffective.

“I feel sorry for Mitch,” Trump said. “He wanted to stay leader, but he wasn’t equipped mentally. He wasn’t equipped ten years ago, mentally.”