Former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced in a floor speech Thursday that he won't be running for re-election in 2026, capping four decades in the Senate and a record as the longest-serving party leader in that chamber's history.
The Kentucky conservative, who also turned 83 on Thursday, has been facing several health issues, including sudden freeze-ups in public, and been using a wheelchair pushed by aides. Politically, the establishment fixture and once-dominant GOP figure on Capitol Hill has been sidelined by the ascent of President Donald Trump, a one-time ally who McConnell has since criticized as a “despicable human being," a “narcissist" and “stupid as well as being ill-tempered."
