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MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) – U.S. Senator Richard C. Shelby, the fourth-longest serving Senate member and force in Alabama and in national politics for more than four decades, announced Monday that he would not run for a seventh term.
The 86-year-old Republican spent more than 40 years in Washington, serving first in the House and then in the Senate. During his time in the House, he had the rare achievement of chairing four major Senate committees and earned a reputation for using his influence and expertise to direct billions of dollars into projects back to his state. ‘origin, Alabama.
Shelby is the fourth Republican in the Senate to announce his retirement, after Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Richard Burr of North Carolina.
“For everything there is a season,” Shelby said in a statement announcing he would not seek re-election. “I am grateful to the people of Alabama who have placed their trust in me for over forty years.”
His departure will leave a power vacuum – and set the stage for a chaotic race to occupy the seat at a time when the National Republican Party is deeply divided over its future direction after former President Donald Trump’s tenure. While Shelby racked up a far-right conservative voting record, the measured Republican senator failed to embrace the explosive populist style of some Republicans.
Shelby’s official announcement that he would not stand for re-election in 2022 came three days after the Associated Press report. that he had indicated to his allies that he would not run again.
“Serving in the United States Senate has been the opportunity of a lifetime,” the senator said in his statement. “I did my best to meet the challenges and find ways to improve the daily lives of all Americans. I also focused on the economic challenges of the Alabamians. ”
The senator stressed that he will complete the remaining two years of his current term and said, “I have the vision and the energy to give it my all.”
Shelby was first elected as a Tory Democrat during the party’s last days of rule in the Deep South. In the House of Representatives, he belonged to a southern conservative caucus known as the boll weevils.
Shelby was elected to the Senate in 1986, but moved to the GOP in 1994. He spent the last two years as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, before the Democrats took control of the chamber.
“Few people have had a greater impact on our state than Senator Richard Shelby,” said Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, who added, “The people of Alabama owe him a debt of gratitude.”
Shelby, who served in the Senate longer than any Alabamian, was one of the last of the “old-fashioned Southern politicians who saw their primary job as channeling so much of the federal budget into the state, instead of jumping on the spot. -button question of the day, ”described political consultant David Mowery.
Shelby developed a friendship with Senator Patrick Leahy, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee. Leahy said Alabama was losing a “strong champion”.
“A fifth generation Alabamian, Senator Shelby is a true statesman and a man of his word. Our country needs more leaders like him.
In 2017, Shelby resisted his party when he announced he could not support Republican Roy Moore, who was facing allegations of sexual misconduct, in the special election for the other Senate seat. of Alabama. Shelby said he instead wrote under another Republican name.
And last month, he was the only Republican in the Alabama congressional delegation to vote to accept the presidential election results certified by Arizona and Pennsylvania. Other Republicans have objected to certifications supporting Trump’s baseless claim that the election was stolen.
Former Alabama Governor Bob Riley noted that during his decades in office, the senator helped change the state’s economic landscape by supporting projects ranging from the Port of Mobile to university buildings in passing through the FBI campus and Space Command headquarters in Huntsville.
“It’s very rare that you have someone who can maneuver the finer details of Senate life and be as efficient as they’ve been,” Riley said.
Former Congressman Bradley Byrne said when he was first elected to Congress he was flipping through an appropriation bill and pointed out to Shelby that the senator had done pretty well for the state.
“He just smiled and said, ‘I have everything I asked for.’ Then he had a very serious look on his face and said, “I can’t vote for this. I said why not and he said because it spends too much money.
The open Senate seat is expected to bring in a flood of candidates.
On the Republican side, possible candidates include former Shelby chief of staff Katie Boyd Britt, who now runs an influential business lobby and who would likely have the senator’s backing if she decides to enter the race. Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill suspended his 2020 Senate campaign when former Attorney General Jeff Sessions jumped in. Representative Mo Brooks and Lynda Blanchard, Trump’s ambassador to Slovenia, are expected to monitor the siege.
Brooks has been criticized for his role in the Jan.6 siege on the U.S. Capitol. At a rally before the deadly riot, he told crowds it was time to ‘take names and kick yourself in the ass’, but he has since maintained that he spoke of fight at the polls.
Merrill said last week he would consider a run if Shelby didn’t stand for re-election. Brooks has said he will either run for re-election to his own seat or to the Senate seat in 2022.
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