WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Republican U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell, who stepped down last year as the longest-serving party leader in Senate history, said on Thursday that he will not seek reelection in 2026, ending his decades-long role as political power player in Washington.
McConnell unveiled his plan to retire on his 83rd birthday, saying in prepared remarks for a Senate floor speech that representing Kentucky in the Senate since 1985 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,” McConnell said in remarks published in advance by the Associated Press.
“Seven times, my fellow Kentuckians have sent me to the Senate,” he said. “Every day in between I’ve been humbled by the trust they’ve placed in me to do their business here.”
(Reporting by David Morgan and Katharine Jackson; Editing by Scott Malone)