After 40 years in the Senate, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced on Feb. 20 that he will not run for reelection in 2026, capping off a prolific political career.
McConnell, 83, told The Associated Press of the decision on Feb. 20.
“Seven times, my fellow Kentuckians have sent me to the Senate,” McConnell said in written remarks given to the outlet ahead of speaking on the Senate floor.
“Every day in between I’ve been humbled by the trust they’ve placed in me to do their business 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.
“Thanks to Ronald Reagan’s determination, the work of strengthening American hard power was well underway when I arrived in the Senate.”
“But since then, we’ve allowed that power to atrophy. And today, a dangerous world threatens to outpace the work of rebuilding it. So, lest any of our colleagues still doubt my intentions for the remainder of my term: I have some unfinished business to attend to.”
McConnell stepped down as Senate GOP leader in November 2024 after 17 years at the helm, which included being Senate majority leader between 2015 and 2021.
It was a record for the longest-serving leader of the caucus in the upper congressional chamber.
McConnell said he will finish his term, which expires on Jan. 3, 2027.
“The Senate is still equipped for work of great consequence,” he said. “And, to the disappointment of my critics, I’m still here on the job.”
During his leadership tenure, McConnell played a role in reshaping the federal judiciary, especially the Supreme Court, which led to significant decisions such as overturning the landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade.
Two notable instances were his declining to give a hearing to Merrick Garland, then-President Barack Obama’s choice to succeed Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016, and his standing by Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump’s then-Supreme Court Justice nominee in 2018, amid allegations of sexual misconduct.
He also pushed through both tax cuts and reform in 2017, the same year that an attempted repeal of Obamacare failed.
Over the past couple of years, McConnell has experienced health issues.
In March 2023, December 2024, and this month, McConnell experienced falling episodes.
While Trump and McConnell worked together to pass Trump’s legislative agenda during his first administration, the two did not always get along. While Trump, for instance, called for abolishing the 60-vote filibuster threshold that applies to most legislation, McConnell declined to eliminate it.
“During his presidency, we worked together to accomplish great things for the American people including tax reform that supercharged our economy and a generational change of our federal judiciary—most importantly, the Supreme Court,” he said.
In the Senate, in addition to being majority leader, McConnell was majority whip and minority leader. He is currently the chairman of the Senate Rules Committee.
Before being elected to the Senate in 1984, McConnell, a polio survivor, was a county judge and worked in the Department of Justice under President Gerald Ford.
McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, was transportation secretary during the first Trump administration.
