Following a "record run" as the Republican leader in the United States Senate, Mitch McConnell will step aside from his leadership post in the upper chamber this November, according to reporting from the Associated Press on Wednesday afternoon.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mitch McConnell will step down as the Senate's Republican leader in November, ending a record run in the powerful post.
— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) February 28, 2024
First elected to the U.S. Senate in 1984, McConnell is currently the 13th longest-serving member of the upper chamber in U.S. history. The Kentucky Republican is also the longest-serving Senate party leader in the country's history. After becoming the Republican whip in 2003, McConnell rose to the position of minority leader from 2007 to 2015, majority leader from 2015 until 2021, and again as minority leader since 2021.
"I stand before you today to say this will be my last term as Republican leader of the Senate," McConnell said on the Senate Floor Wednesday. "However, I'll complete the job my colleagues have given me until we select a new leader," he explained. "I'll finish the job that people of Kentucky hired me to do as well, albeit from a different seat." McConnell's current term runs through January 2027.
"I am filled with heartfelt gratitude and humility for the opportunity," McConnell said of his decades representing the people of Kentucky in the Senate and his record-setting tenure as Republican leader.
MCCONNELL: "I always imagined a moment when I had total clarity and peace about the sunset of my work. A moment when I’m certain I have helped preserve the ideals he so strongly believe. That day arrived today."pic.twitter.com/pDIHNLw7tz
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) February 28, 2024
"I still get a thrill walking into the Capitol and especially on this venerable floor," reflected McConnell. "But father time remains undefeated," he quipped. "I'm no longer the young man sitting in the back hoping colleagues would remember my name — it's time for the next generation in leadership."
McConnell's leadership legacy includes sparing America from the prospect of Merrick Garland getting a lifetime post on the U.S. Supreme Court and working with former President Donald Trump to confirm more than 230 originalist judges to the federal judiciary, including three justices to the highest court in the land.
The longest-serving Senate party leader's decision to step aside this fall comes after McConnell faced questions about his health after two instances in which he froze up while taking questions from reporters — one in the U.S. Capitol and another while in Kentucky.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
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