JUST IN: Mitch McConnell Announces Retirement From The Senate

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the longest-serving majority leader in Senate history, just made a massive announcement during a speech in the upper chamber.

One week after being badly dissed by President Donald Trump, the Kentucky Republican announced on Thursday he will be retiring from the Senate at the end of his term. His decision to not seek reelection caps a 40+ year career in the Senate and time in public service stretching back to 1968.

It is also the epilogue of an era when power brokers like McConnell were once in favor and chits by the Senate majority leader, along with backroom deals, were part of the normal course in dealmaking. Today, the MAGA movement is largely sour on legacy figures like McConnell, and they were practically ecstatic to see Trump rip into him after he was the sole Republican to vote against Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence.

What can’t be denied, however, is the legacy McConnell will leave on the federal courts. He has helped shepherd in six of the Supreme Court’s nine current justices under Trump and both Bush presidencies. Out of 179 judges in the federal Courts of Appeals, 89 — a slim majority — have been appointed by Republicans.

“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.”

McConnell was first elected to the Senate in 1984, winning the Republican primary on a platform of conservatism after serving as the judge-executive of Jefferson County. Since then, he has rarely faced serious opposition; in 2020, he defeated Democratic nominee Amy McGrath, a former Marine fighter pilot, by 20 points.

His term will expire in January of 2027, providing Kentucky Republicans with a nearly two-year runway to field McConnell’s successor. State Democrats are not without their own bench of talent: Gov. Andy Beshear, the second most popular state executive in the country, will almost certainly be floated as a contender, as will Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman.

A series of medical episodes over Sen. McConnell’s final term have driven home the sentiment that Washington, D.C., is the land of coffin-dodgers. He was hospitalized after falling down a set of stairs in 2023, and he has inexplicably paused mid-remarks on several occasions, forcing his staff to issue vague explanations about his well-being.

Despite his time leading Senate Republicans, McConnell is not respected by President Trump, a man with whom he was never particularly close. His wife, Elaine Chao, served as Trump’s transportation secretary in his first term before resigning in protest after the January 6th, 2021, riots at the capitol.

“If I didn’t come along, the Republican Party wouldn’t even exist right now,” Trump said to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. “Mitch McConnell never really had it. He had an ability to raise money because of his position as leader, which anybody could do. You could do it, even. And that’s saying a lot.”