Mitch McConnell won’t seek Senate re-election in 2026

Senator Mitch McConnell will not run for re-election next year, bringing an end to a decades-long career for a Republican leader who marshaled his party through multiple administrations with a singleminded focus on power that enraged his critics and delighted his allies.

The Associated Press broke the news of McConnell’s retirement on Thursday, which marked the Republican senator’s 83rd birthday. McConnell formally announced his retirement in a Senate floor speech on Thursday.

“Seven times, my fellow Kentuckians have sent me to the Senate,” McConnell said.

“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.”

The announcement comes one year after McConnell announced he would step down as Senate Republican leader after nearly two decades in the post, making him the longest-serving Senate party leader in US history. McConnell became Republican leader in 2007, after first joining the Senate in 1985.

“One of life’s most under-appreciated talents is to know when it’s time to move on to life’s next chapter,” McConnell said last year. “So I stand before you today … to say that this will be my last term as Republican leader of the Senate.”

Senator John Thune, a Republican of South Dakota, has since taken over as head of the conference. McConnell indicated he would still serve out the rest of his term, but his decision to relinquish the leadership role spurred speculation about his potential retirement.

Without his leadership title, McConnell has appeared more willing to directly challenge Donald Trump, sparking intense criticism from the president. McConnell has repeatedly voted against Trump’s most controversial cabinet picks – including Robert F Kennedy Jr, the new secretary of health and human services, and Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense – and denounced the president’s pardons of January 6 insurrectionists.

“No one should excuse violence – and particularly violence against police officers,” McConnell said of the pardons.

Trump has returned the fire, suggesting McConnell had stepped down as Republican leader because he was “not equipped mentally” for the job and accusing him of letting the party “go to hell”.

In the remarks he planned to deliver on Thursday, McConnell indicated he would not change his ways and would instead use his final months in office to send a message about America’s place on the global stage.

“Thanks to Ronald Reagan’s determination, the work of strengthening American hard power was well underway when I arrived in the Senate,” McConnell said in his prepared remarks.

“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.”

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