Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., will not seek reelection when his term ends in 2022, making him the fourth Senate Republican to announce their retirement, Fox News reports.
"Today I announce that I will not seek a seventh term in the United States Senate in 2022," Shelby said in a statement on Monday. "For everything, there is a season."
The senator started out in politics as a Democrat in the Alabama state Senate, where he served for eight years before running for the U.S. House in 1978, followed by the Senate in 1986. He eventually switched parties to Republican in 1994.
"I am grateful to the people of Alabama who have put their trust in me for more than forty years,” he added. “I have been fortunate to serve in the U.S. Senate longer than any other Alabamian."
Shelby noted that despite the announcement, "I am not leaving today. I have two good years remaining to continue my work in Washington. I have the vision and the energy to give it my all."
Republicans recently lost their majority in the Senate, which is evenly divided between the parties, leaving Democrats in control thanks to Vice President Kamala Harris’s ability to cast the tie-breaking vote.
Fox News notes that the GOP is defending the majority of the seats up in next year’s election, 20 out of 34, and that several Republicans have recently announced their intention to retire from the Senate, including Pennsylvania’s Pat Toomey, North Carolina’s Richard Burr, and Ohio’s Rob Portman.
The network also notes that a source close to former Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions, who left the Senate to become U.S. Attorney General in 2017, has no plans to run for Shelby’s seat in 2022.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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