Former Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell said he will not be re-electioned in 2026 and announced his imminent departure from the Senate on Thursday on his 83rd birthday.
McConnell said he made the decision last year not to run again on the Senate floor.
“Seven times, my fellow Kentuckians sent me to the Senate,” McConnell said. “Every day in the meantime I am humbled by the trust they have placed on me to do their business here. It has been a lifelong honor to represent our Federation. I have given this honor a lifetime. I won’t ask for it for the eighth time. My current Senate term will be my last.”
McConnell has been a US Senator in Kentucky since 1985 and announced a year ago that he would abandon his leadership role in the Senate. He was a Senate Republican leader from 2007 to 2025 and is the longest Senate leader in US history. McConnell was the majority leader in 2015-2021.
A Kentucky Republican retirement from the Senate was widely expected.
McConnell, a survivor of polio, has been experiencing health problems in recent years. Freezing episode and waterfall. Those who spent time around him recently said he has experienced a reappearance of polio symptoms known to cause suffering to older illnesses. He has been in a wheelchair since he recently fell on the US Capitol.
