Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced he will step down from Senate leadership this November.
After stepping down from leadership, the Senate Minority Leader will serve out his Senate term, which ends in January 2027.
McConnell, 82, announced his decision in the Senate on Wednesday.
“One of life’s most underappreciated talents is to know when it’s time to move on to life’s next chapter,” McConnell said in prepared remarks obtained by The Associated Press. “So I stand before you today ... to say that this will be my last term as Republican leader of the Senate.”
“As I have been thinking about when I would deliver some news to the Senate, I always imagined a moment when I had total clarity and peace about the sunset of my work,” McConnell continued. “A moment when I am certain I have helped preserve the ideals I so strongly believe. It arrived today.”
The Senate Minority Leader's announcement follows the death of his sister-in-law, Elaine Chao, who passed away in a car accident at age 50 earlier this month.
“The end of my contributions are closer than I’d prefer,” McConnell said.
McConnell has served in the Senate for nearly 40 years and has been in Republican leadership since 2003. He is the longest-serving Senate leader in United States history.
"I know the politics within my party at this particular moment in time. I have many faults. Misunderstanding politics is not one of them,” McConnell commented on the divisive state of American politics. “I believe more strongly than ever that America’s global leadership is essential to preserving the shining city on a hill that Ronald Reagan discussed. For as long as I am drawing breath on this earth I will defend American exceptionalism.”
“I love the Senate,” he added. “It has been my life. There may be more distinguished members of this body throughout our history, but I doubt there are any with more admiration for it.”
McConnell's health has been called into question as he was hospitalized after falling in a Washington hotel last March. Several months after his fall, McConnell abruptly stopped speaking and appeared unable to move at his podium during a Senate Republican press conference last July. McConnell once again abruptly stopped talking and appeared to be frozen in place again during a press conference in Covington, Kentucky the following September.
“Father Time remains undefeated," McConnell continued. "I am no longer the young man sitting in the back, hoping colleagues would remember my name. It is time for the next generation of leadership.”
“I still have enough gas in the tank to thoroughly disappoint my critics and I intend to do so with all the enthusiasm which they have become accustomed," he added.
