Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), a member of the Republican Senate leadership, announced Monday he won’t 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 said in a Twitter video message on Monday morning. He was referring to his previous election victories.
Blunt was elected to the Senate for the first time in 2010. He previously served as the Republican House whip during his seven terms in the lower chamber, and before that, he was the Missouri secretary of state.
Blunt, who is the ranking Republican member of the Senate Rules Committee, added: “In every job, Missourians have allowed me to have, I’ve tried to do my best. In almost 12,000 votes in the Congress, I’m sure I wasn’t right every time, but you really make that decision based on the information you have at the time.
Other than Blunt, Sens. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), and Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), have announced that they will retire at the end of their current term.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), 87, previously told reporters he will make a decision in the fall on whether to run for office again in 2022.
Shelby, Blunt, Portman, and Burr are all ranking members of their respective Senate committees. After they retire, it means new Republican senators will be tapped to lead those committees.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump over the weekend vowed to campaign against Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) for her 2022 releection bid.
“I don’t know where other people will be next year, but I know where I will be—in Alaska campaigning against a … senator,” he said in a statement via email.
Murkowski, as well as six other GOP senators, voted to convict Trump during his impeachment trial in February. Murkowski has also clashed with Trump on a variety of issues in the past.
The Alaska Republican also announced last week she would vote for President Joe Biden’s pick for secretary of the interior, Deb Haaland. Trump, in his statement, appeared to take issue with that development.
“Her vote to advance radical left Democrat Deb Haaland for Secretary of the Interior is yet another example of Murkowski not standing up for Alaska,” Trump said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on March 1 that he’ll support Murkowski, coming after Trump called on her and the other Republicans who either voted to convict or impeach him to be voted out of office during his CPAC speech on Feb. 28
“Yeah, absolutely,” McConnell answered when he was asked whether the National Republican Senatorial Committee will support her bid in 2022.
