McConnell Announces He Won’t Seek Re-election

Senator Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican and longest-serving Senate leader who played a pivotal role in obstructing major Democratic agenda items and stacking the federal courts with conservatives, said Thursday that he would not seek another term in 2026.

In a speech on the Senate floor that fell on his 83rd birthday, Mr. McConnell made official what had been widely expected since he announced last year that he would step down as Republican leader. He said that representing Kentucky was “the honor of a lifetime,” but that “I will not seek this honor an eighth time. My current term in the Senate will be my last.”

When he stepped down as leader, Mr. McConnell had said he was committed to finishing out his seventh term in Congress. He had not announced his political plans, but it had become clear that he was nearing the end of his career. Mr. McConnell has suffered a series of health issues over the past year, including a back-to-back pair of falls recently that left him temporarily using a wheelchair to navigate the Capitol.

Mr. McConnell established himself as a master tactician in the Senate during 18 years as minority and majority leader, making shrewd use of the chamber’s rules to thwart his opponents and empower his allies, including President Trump. He blocked former President Barack Obama from filling a Supreme Court seat at the end of his tenure and then led a Republican effort to install deeply conservative jurists on the bench under the first Trump administration, culminating in the confirmation of three Supreme Court justices.

But he has a deeply fraught relationship with Mr. Trump, despite the key role he played in enacting Mr. Trump’s agenda and allowing him to return to power. In recent weeks, he has found himself increasingly isolated within his own party, particularly on the issues of national security and safeguarding democracy.

In his speech on Thursday, Mr. McConnell warned of “a dangerous world threatens to outpace the work of rebuilding it.”

“I assure our colleagues that I will depart with great hope for the endurance of the Senate as an institution,” he said. “There are many reasons for pessimism, but the strength of the Senate is not one of them.”

These days, Mr. McConnell has found himself on an island in the Republican conference that he once led. In recent weeks, he has voted against three of Mr. Trump’s cabinet nominees, cementing his unlikely role as the main holdout to the president’s agenda at the beginning of his second term. Some of his colleagues said they expected him to vote against the confirmation of Kash Patel as F.B.I. director later Thursday, following his speech.