U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell won’t seek re-election in 2026, ending long tenure as Republican power broker

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky speaks during an interview with the Associated Press at his office in the Capitol, Nov. 6, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

WASHINGTON — Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell announced Thursday that he won’t seek reelection next year, ending a decadeslong tenure as a power broker who championed conservative causes but ultimately ceded ground to the fierce GOP populism of U.S. President Donald Trump.

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 addressed colleagues in a speech on the Senate floor.

“Seven times, my fellow Kentuckians have sent me to the Senate,” McConnell said, as aides lined the back chamber and senators listened from seats. “Every day in between I’ve been humbled by the trust they’ve placed in me to do their business right 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.”

The scramble for McConnell’s seat intensified soon after McConnell spoke.

Former state Attorney General Daniel Cameron, a Republican, said he’s in the race to succeed his one-time mentor, having formerly worked as McConnell’s legal counsel. Cameron lost the 2023 governor’s race to Democratic incumbent Andy Beshear but has been planning a political comeback. Cameron said Thursday that his values align with Kentucky voters and touted his support for Trump.

“I’m going to be an `America First' senator and it’s time for a new generation of leadership,” Cameron told the AP in a phone interview Thursday evening.

McConnell’s retirement announcement began 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. Yet with his powerful perch atop committees, and nearly two years remaining in his term, McConnell vowed to complete his work on several remaining fronts.

“I have some unfinished business to attend to,” he said.

McConnell walked gingerly to the podium, sporting a walking boot. Senators from both sides of the political aisle seemed to listen most intently as he told them that while there are any number of reasons for pessimism, the strength of the Senate is not one of them.

“The Senate is still equipped for work of great consequence,” he told them.

As he concluded, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., motioned for the audience of senators, staff and Capitol visitors be allowed to applaud, which is usually not allowed under Senate rules.

Republican senators then lined up to greet McConnell, beginning with Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who hugged him, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who patted him on the back. He took out a tissue and made a joke, prompting the group to laugh. Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota gave him a warm handshake, and a dozen others senators soon did so as well.

Sen. Lindsey Graham said McConnell reshaped the American judiciary, particularly the Supreme Court. “He has a lot to be proud of, and I am sure he will work hard to the very end of his term,” Graham said.

Changing dynamics in the GOP

McConnell, first elected in 1984, intends to serve until his term ends 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 famously taciturn McConnell revered the Senate 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.

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.

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. 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. Beshear’s chief political strategist, Eric Hyers, reiterated that stance Thursday, posting on X, “He is not running for the Senate.”

Another prominent Kentucky Republican considering the race quickly weighed in. U.S. Rep. Andy Barr said he would decide soon about his future. Also looming as a GOP candidate is businessman Nate Morris.

One common denominator among them -- their professed loyalty to Trump.

McConnell, a diehard adherent to Ronald Reagan’s brand of traditional conservatism and muscular foreign policy, increasingly found himself out of step with a GOP shifting toward the fiery, often isolationist populism espoused by Trump.

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 made it clear Thursday that national defence remains a priority for him.

He and Trump were partners during Trump’s first term, but the relationship was severed after McConnell blamed Trump for “disgraceful” acts in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack by his supporters. A momentary thaw in 2024 when McConnell endorsed Trump didn’t last.

Last week, Trump referred to McConnell as a “very bitter guy” after McConnell, who battled polio as a child, opposed vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr.‘s confirmation as the nation’s top health official. McConnell referred to Trump as a “despicable human being” and a “narcissist” in a biography of the senator by The AP’s deputy Washington bureau chief, Michael Tackett.

Shifting the Supreme Court

Before their falling out, Trump and McConnell pushed through a tax overhaul largely focused on reductions for businesses and higher-earning taxpayers. They joined forces to reshape the Supreme Court when Trump nominated three justices and McConnell guided them to Senate confirmation, tilting the high court to the right.

McConnell set a precedent for hardball partisan tactics in 2016 by refusing to even give a hearing to Democratic President Barack Obama’s pick of Merrick Garland to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Putting the brakes on the Senate’s “advise and consent” role for judicial nominees, McConnell said the vacancy should be filled by the next president so voters could have their say. Trump filled the vacancy once he took office, and McConnell later called the stonewalling of Garland’s nomination his “most consequential” achievement.

Later, when liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died weeks before the 2020 presidential election won by Democrat Joe Biden, McConnell rushed Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation through the Senate, waving off allegations of hypocrisy.

McConnell also guided the Senate -- and Trump -- through two impeachment trials that ended in acquittals.

In the second impeachment, weeks after the deadly Capitol attack by a mob hoping to overturn Trump’s 2020 reelection defeat, McConnell joined all but seven Republicans in voting to acquit. McConnell said he believed Trump couldn’t be convicted because he’d already left office, but the senator also condemned Trump as “practically and morally responsible” for the insurrection.

McConnell over the years swung back and forth from majority to minority leader, depending on which party held power. He defended President George W. Bush’s handling of the Iraq war and failed to block Obama’s health care overhaul.

McConnell, the longest-serving senator ever from Kentucky, ensured that the Bluegrass State received plenty of federal funding. Back home he was a key architect in his party’s rise to power in a state long dominated by Democrats.

He is married to Elaine Chao, and they have long been a power couple in Washington. The senator referred to her as his “ultimate teammate and confidante.” Chao was labor secretary for Bush and transportation secretary during Trump’s first term, though she resigned after the Capitol insurrection, saying it had “deeply troubled” her.

Article written by Bruce Schreiner and Kevin Freking