Mitch McConnell to step down as US Senate minority leader in November

WASHINGTON

US Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday he will step down from his leadership role in November.

"I turned 82 last week. The end of my contributions are closer than I prefer," McConnell said in an address to the Senate.

McConnell, who is the longest-serving Senate Republican leader in history, plans to keep his seat in the chamber, which he took in 1985 when then-President Ronald Reagan was in power.

"But one of life's most underappreciated talents is to know when it's time to move on to life's next chapter, so I stand before you today, Mr. President and my colleagues, to say this will be my last term as Republican leader of the Senate," he said, adding he plans to serve out his term, which ends in January 2027, "albeit from a different seat in the chamber."

With his voice breaking with emotion, McConnell said: "I'm no longer the young man sitting in the back hoping colleagues remember my name. It's time for the next generation of leadership."

Aides said the announcement from the senator from the state of Kentucky about the leadership post was not related to his health.

McConnell appeared to experience two freezing episodes while speaking in public last year.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said McConnell "rose from humble beginnings overcoming polio to become one of the most consequential" Senate Leaders in history.

"He started his Senate career as a legislative aide and ended up in charge of the upper chamber. No Member of Congress has played a greater role in reshaping the federal judiciary than Mitch," Johnson wrote on X.

"His legacy will endure for generations," he said as he saluted McConnell's historic contributions to the Republican Party and to Congress.