McConnell won't seek reelection in 2026, ending long tenure as GOP power broker

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

45% : So, lest any of our colleagues still doubt my intentions for the remainder of my term: I have some unfinished business to attend to.
41% : They joined forces to reshape the Supreme Court when Trump nominated three justices and McConnell guided them to Senate confirmation, tilting the high court to the right.
37% : McConnell, a diehard adherent to Ronald Reagan's brand of traditional conservatism and muscular foreign policy, increasingly found himself out of step with a GOP shifting toward the fiery, often isolationist populism espoused by Trump.
37% : Before their falling out, Trump and McConnell pushed through a tax overhaul largely focused on reductions for businesses and higher-earning taxpayers.
33% : He's seen his power diminish on a parallel track with both his health and his relationship with Trump, who once praised him as an ally but has taken to criticizing him in caustic terms.
32% : A momentary thaw in 2024 when McConnell endorsed Trump didn't last.
28% : McConnell referred to Trump as a "despicable human being" and a "narcissist" in a biography of the senator by the Associated Press' deputy Washington bureau chief, Michael Tackett.
28% : McConnell also guided the Senate -- and Trump -- through two impeachment trials that ended in acquittals.
27% : Trump filled the vacancy once he took office, and McConnell later called the stonewalling of Garland's nomination his "most consequential" achievement.
19% : LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell said Thursday that he will not seek reelection next year, ending a decades-long tenure as a power broker who championed conservative causes but ultimately ceded ground to the fierce GOP populism of President Trump.
9% : McConnell said he believed Trump couldn't be convicted because he'd already left office, but the senator also condemned Trump as "practically and morally responsible" for the insurrection.
7% : Last week, Trump referred to McConnell as a "very bitter guy" after McConnell, who battled polio as a child, opposed vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s confirmation as the nation's top health official.
6% : McConnell still champions providing Ukraine with weapons and other aid to fend off Russia's invasion, even as Trump ratchets up criticism of the country and its leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
1% : " McConnell and Trump were partners during Trump's first term, but the relationship was severed after McConnell blamed Trump for "disgraceful" acts in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack by his supporters.

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