JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — In an announcement that instantly shook Missouri's political landscape, U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt said Monday morning he would not run for reelection in 2022.
"After 14 general election victories — three to county office, seven to the United States House of Representatives and four statewide elections — I won't be a candidate for reelection to the United States Senate next year," Blunt, a Republican first elected to the Senate in 2010, said in a video posted to Twitter.
Blunt, 71, became Missouri's senior U.S. senator in 2019 after incumbent Democrat Claire McCaskill was defeated in her 2018 reelection bid by then-Attorney General Josh Hawley.