Mitch McConnell announces he’ll retire, ending his four-decade Senate career
By Sahil Kapur NBC
WASHINGTON — Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the longest-serving Senate leader in history, announced on his 83rd birthday Thursday that he won’t seek re-election next year, bringing an end to his four-decade career in the chamber.
McConnell, elected in 1984, climbed his way up to the Senate Republican leader position in 2007 and remained there until early 2025, serving during four administrations in the majority and the minority.
He will leave behind a complex legacy and a party that has transformed away from traditional conservatism into one led by President Donald Trump, with whom the Kentucky Republican has long had a frosty relationship.
“Representing our commonwealth has been the honor of my lifetime. I will not seek this honor an eighth time,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “My current term in the Senate will be my last.”
McConnell supported Trump’s presidential bids in 2016 and 2020. He made a crucial decision in early 2021 to vote to acquit Trump on impeachment charges of inciting an insurrection, even as he blasted Trump as “practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day,” calling his actions a “disgraceful dereliction of duty.” Despite his misgivings, he went on to endorse Trump for president again in 2024 after Trump clinched the Republican nomination for a third successive time.
McConnell’s most significant actions came during his stint as Senate majority leader from 2015 to 2021.
In 2016, he infuriated Democrats by making the extraordinary decision to deny a hearing or a vote to President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee for the vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. The move, celebrated by many conservatives, paved the way for Trump to appoint Justice Neil Gorsuch.
McConnell oversaw Trump’s three Supreme Court nominations during his first term, part of a sweeping set of 234 judges confirmed over those four years — most of them young conservatives who will serve for generations — which McConnell has regarded as his proudest achievement.
McConnell also shepherded Trump’s 2017 tax cut law through the Senate, which became Trump’s signature legislative achievement during his first term. He has also served on the Appropriations Committee for years and unapologetically used his positions to steer federal funds to his home state, Kentucky.
