Mitch McConnell stepping down as GOP Senate leader

Sen. Mitch McConnell will step down as the U.S. Senate’s Republican leader in November, he announced Wednesday. He did not give a specific reason for stepping down, and said he will continue in his role until a new leader is elected in November and takes the helm in January.

McConnell, 82, said he still plans to serve out his term in the Senate, which ends in January 2027, “albeit from a different seat in the chamber.”

“I’m no longer the young man sitting in the back hoping colleagues would remember my name,” he said from the Senate floor. “It’s time for the next generation of leadership.”

The powerful Kentucky senator, the longest-serving party leader in Senate history, has led the Senate GOP since 2007. He’s positioned himself as one of the most influential lawmakers in Washington, in party by reshaping the Supreme Court by shepherding three conservative justices — Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — to the bench.

He resisted calls to step down last year after suffering serious health concerns in recent years, sustaining a concussion and fracturing a rib after a fall last March, and raising alarm after briefly freezing twice during public speeches last summer.

“I love the Senate, it’s been my life,” McConnell said Wednesday. “There may be more distinguished members of this body throughout our history, but I doubt there are any with more admiration for the Senate.”

He said that it’s not yet time to reminisce: “I still have enough gas in the tank to thoroughly disappoint my critics, and I intend to do so with all the enthusiasm with which they have become accustomed.”

Several Republican lawmakers, acknowledging that it’s a tense time for the party as it battles over foreign aid and its presidential nominee, said they were grateful McConnell left them with some runway before they have to vote on a new leader.

“We need to have a very serious discussion about really what our conference stands for. What our mission is, what we need to do as conservative leaders,” Politico reported Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson saying. “I appreciate Leader McConnell giving us the time now to have that discussion so we can choose well.”

Some, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, lauded McConnell for his legacy. “No Member of Congress has played a greater role in reshaping the federal judiciary than Mitch,” Johnson said. “I join my colleagues in saluting his historic contributions to the Republican Party and to the Congress. His legacy will endure for generations.”

Others were less gracious about the timing of the announcement — and McConnell’s work as a whole.

“I called on McConnell to step down over a year ago,” Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley posted on X after the announcement. “This is good news. But why wait so long – we need new leadership now.”

“We’ve now 86’d [pushed out] McCarthy, McDaniel, McConnell,” Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz wrote. “Better days are ahead for the Republican Party.”

President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he was sorry to hear McConnell is stepping down. “We have a great relationship. We fight like hell. But he has never, never, never misrepresented anything,” Biden said.

Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer shared a similar sentiment, saying in a statement that “Mitch McConnell and I rarely saw eye to eye when it came to our politics or our policy preferences.” But, Schumer added, “I am very proud that we both came together in the last few years to lead the Senate forward at critical moments when our country needed us, like passing the CARES Act in the early days of the COVID pandemic, finishing our work to verify the election on January 6th, and more recently working together to fund the fight for Ukraine.”

Three men have long been considered potential successors to McConnell — and they’re all named John. (Asked Wednesday who he would support to succeed McConnell, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance replied: “John.”)

John Thune of South Dakota is the highest-ranking Senate Republican behind McConnell. Asked Wednesday if he plans to announce a bid for the position, the 63-year-old told Punchbowl News “we’ll let you know soon what we’re thinking.”

“He leaves big shoes to fill,” Thune said. “There will be plenty of time. Today we just want to reflect on his service and honor him.”

John Barrasso of Wyoming, chairman of the Senate GOP conference, is the third-highest ranking Senate Republican. Barrasso, 71, is considered the most conservative of the three Johns.

Asked by Politico about whether he’d run for leader, Barrasso said: “That election is nine months away, and there’s a much more important election between now and then. And that’s the election we need to take the presidency and the Senate and the House, and that’s where my focus is.”

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas is not in the Senate GOP’s current leadership but has previously served as whip and is a close McConnell ally. The 72-year-old also helped elect 10 GOP senators – who are all still serving – when he was chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2010 and 2012. Asked whether he would run for leader, Cornyn said, “Today is about Mitch McConnell. But I’ve made no secret of my intentions.”