Mitch McConnell, the 82-year-old Kentucky conservative who has led the Republican Party in the U.S. Senate since 2007, will step down from the role after this fall’s elections, he said Wednesday.
The iconic GOP lawmaker, who led the party through a turbulent era of transition, said he will serve out the rest of his final term, which runs through the 2026 election.
“To serve Kentucky in the Senate has been the honor of my life,” he said on the floor of the Senate. “To lead my Republican colleagues has been the highest privilege.”
“This will be my last term as Republican leader of the Senate,” he added.
McConnell’s team said health woes did not force him to make the decision. But he admitted the recent death of the younger sister of his wife, Elaine Chao, prompted some soul-searching.
“The end of my contributions are closer than I’d prefer,” McConnell said. “One of life’s most under-appreciated talents is to know when it’s time to move on to life’s next chapter.”
Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer embraced McConnell on the floor of the Senate after McConnell spoke, and praised his rival for setting aside politics.
“We both came together … at critical moments when our country needed us,” Schumer said in a statement.
There was no immediate word on who might be favored to replace McConnell as Republican leader in the Senate. Sen. John Thune (R-South Dakota) is McConnell’s top lieutenant but more right-wing pro-Trump figures will likely see an opportunity to take control when McConnell departs.
McConnell hopes one of his final legislative achievements will be pushing through a $60 billion aid package for Ukraine that is so far being blocked by Republicans in the deeply divided House.
The courtly old-school conservative was known as a wily master of the Senate and its arcane rules, which helped him roll up an impressive track record of political wins.
He engineered the effective conservative takeover of the U.S. Supreme Court, delivered tax cuts for the wealthy and big business, and blocked immigration reform that many Republicans believe would change the country for the worse.
McConnell sought to manage the still-ongoing transformation of the GOP from a traditional conservative party dominated by business interests to a populist group run by right-wing adherents of former President Donald Trump.
His rocky relationship with Trump was the defining factor of McConnell’s later years in office. He worked with Trump after his election to the White House to enact a huge tax cut and to install three conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices, who delivered a historic ruling rolling back abortion rights.
But McConnell couldn’t stomach Trump’s attempt to overturn his loss in the 2020 election, and he denounced Trump as being “morally and practically responsible” for the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Still, in a sign party loyalty trumped all else, McConnell effectively blocked Trump from being convicted in the Senate for his actions on Jan. 6, a decision that critics say allowed the former president to quickly regain his grip on the GOP.
Recent reports say McConnell is considering endorsing Trump for president in 2024 despite their bitter differences.
