OAN Staff James Meyers
11:18 AM – Thursday, February 20, 2025
Longtime Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell announced on his 83rd birthday that he will not seek re-election, after serving a lengthy seven terms in Congress.
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McConnell, the longest-serving leader in the upper chamber’s history, made the announcement on Thursday.
McConnell has been a member of the U.S. Senate since 1985, though he was first elected in 1984.
The Kentucky native will have served seven terms by the time he retires in January 2027.
He also previously stepped down as a Republican Congressional leader after the 2024 elections last year.
“Seven times, my fellow Kentuckians have sent me to the Senate,” McConnell said in prepared remarks to 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.”
Previously, he initially stated that he would serve out the rest of his term — until January 2027.
McConnell announcement comes after he has suffered multiple health scares after freezing up during press briefings to the public.
McConnell had suffered a hard fall during a GOP lunch in December. Then, to make matters worse, while exiting the Senate chamber earlier this month, he fell again and agreed to be transported in a wheelchair — prompting Americans to call for him to retire for Congress.
After adding three justices to give President Donald Trump’s first administration a conservative majority, he leaves behind a legacy of having radically changed the composition of the U.S. Supreme Court. Additionally, he prevented former President Barack Obama from appointing Merrick Garland.
However, McConnell and Trump’s relationship hit a wall after he disagreed with the president’s “rigged” election claims in 2020. Ever since, McConnell has voted against the majority of Trump nominees at the start of his second term.
“One of life’s most underappreciated talents is to know when it’s time to move on to life’s next chapter,” he said in floor remarks at the time. “So I stand before you today… to say that this will be my last term as Republican leader of the Senate.”
McConnell’s Life Timeline – via the Courier Journal:
- 1964: McConnell graduates from the University of Louisville in political science, with honors.
- 1967: McConnell graduates from the University of Kentucky College of Law.
- 1978: McConnell acts as judge-executive for Jefferson County.
- 1985: McConnell takes office as member of the Senate.
- 2003: McConnell acts as majority whip.
- 2007: McConnell becomes the Republican Party Senate leader, acting as Minority Leader.
- 2015: McConnell becomes Republican Party Majority Leader in the Senate. (The majority/minority leader positions switch based on the political party in control of the Senate. When he first took the position, the Republican Party held a minority of Senate seats, while they took the majority in 2015.)
- 2017-2020: McConnell helps to appoint three Supreme Court Justices: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
- 2021: McConnell acts as Republican Party Minority Leader.
- 2024: McConnell, age 82, announces decision to step down as GOP’s Minority Leader in the Senate in February.
- February 2025: McConnell announces on his 83rd birthday he will not seek re-election.
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