Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), a member of the Republican Senate leadership, has announced he won’t run for reelection in 2022.
Blunt was elected to the Senate for the first time in 2010. He previously served as the Republican House whip during his seven terms in the lower chamber, and before that, he was the Missouri secretary of state.
Blunt, who is the ranking Republican member of the Senate Rules Committee, added: “In every job Missourians have allowed me to have, I’ve tried to do my best. In almost 12,000 votes in the Congress, I’m sure I wasn’t right every time, but you really make that decision based on the information you have at the time.”
In a statement, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Blunt leaving “will be a loss for the Republican conference and the entire Senate.”
Sens. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), and Richard Burr (R-N.C.) also have announced that they will retire at the end of their current terms. They are all ranking members of their respective committees, which could lead to some jockeying among the GOP senators to be tapped to fill those posts.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), 87, previously told reporters he will make a decision in the fall on whether to run for office again in 2022.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump over the weekend vowed to campaign against Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), when she’s up for reelection next year.
“I don’t know where other people will be next year, but I know where I will be—in Alaska campaigning against a ... senator,” he said in a statement via email.
Murkowski, as well as six other GOP senators, voted to convict Trump during his impeachment trial in February. Murkowski has also clashed with Trump on a variety of issues in the past.
The Alaska Republican announced last week she would vote for President Joe Biden’s pick for secretary of the interior, Deb Haaland. Trump, in his statement, appeared to take issue with her decision.
“Her vote to advance radical left Democrat Deb Haaland for Secretary of the Interior is yet another example of Murkowski not standing up for Alaska,” Trump said.
McConnell said on March 1 that he'll support Murkowski, coming after Trump called on her and the other Republicans who either voted to convict or impeach him to be voted out of office during his CPAC speech on Feb. 28.
“Yeah, absolutely,” McConnell answered when he was asked whether the National Republican Senatorial Committee will support her bid in 2022.
