McConnell will serve out his Senate term, which ends in January 2027.
Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who turned 82 last week and has suffered multiple public ‘glitches,’ will step down from his Senate leadership position in November after maintaining power for almost two decades as the longest-serving Senate leader in US history.
McConnell was set to announce his decision on Wednesday in the well of the Senate, AP reports.
“One of life’s most underappreciated talents is to know when it’s time to move on to life’s next chapter,” he said in prepared remarks seen by the outlet. “So I stand before you today … to say that this will be my last term as Republican leader of the Senate.”
While he’ll no longer be leader, McConnell will serve out his Senate term, which ends in January 2027, “albeit from a different seat in the chamber.”
“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,” the prepared remarks continue. “A moment when I am certain I have helped preserve the ideals I so strongly believe. It arrived today.”
It also arrived, as noted above, after two major health scares and his party shifting towards anti-war populism ushered in by President Trump.
BREAKING NEWS: Sen. Mitch McConnell appearing to have another scary episode in the media gaggle in Covington today. Aides had to step in to help him out and repeat questions. He was eventually lead away. We’ll have the full video on @WLWT pic.twitter.com/q9ex5MHxLV
— Hannah Thomas (@HannahPThomas) August 30, 2023
His tenure was not without its critics, especially from the more restive corners of his party, often aligned with Trump’s confrontational style. Yet, McConnell’s grip on his caucus seldom wavered, a testament to his deep understanding of the political undercurrents that shape legislative priorities.
The two have been estranged since December 2020, when McConnell refused to abide Trump’s lie that the election of Democrat Joe Biden as president was the product of fraud.
But while McConnell’s critics within the GOP conference had grown louder, their numbers had not grown appreciably larger, a marker of McConnell’s strategic and tactical skill and his ability to understand the needs of his fellow Republican senators.
McConnell gave no specific reason for the timing of his decision, which he has been contemplating for months, but he cited the recent death of his wife’s youngest sister as a moment that prompted introspection. “The end of my contributions are closer than I’d prefer,” McConnell said. –AP
The impending leadership vacuum raises questions about the direction of the Republican Party. His successor will inherit a party at a crossroads, caught between its traditional conservative roots and the populist wave that has reshaped its identity in recent years.
