Longest-Serving Senate Leader Ever to Hang Up His Hat

Mitch McConnell, the longest-serving Senate leader in history who maintained his power in the face of dramatic convulsions in the Republican Party for almost two decades, will step down from that position in November. The AP reports McConnell, who turned 82 last week, is set to announce his decision Wednesday. "One of life's most underappreciated talents is to know when it's time to move on to life's next chapter," he said in prepared remarks obtained by the AP. "So I stand before you today ... to say that this will be my last term as Republican leader of the Senate." What you need to know:

• "As I have been thinking about when I would deliver some news to the Senate, I always imagined a moment when I had total clarity and peace about the sunset of my work," McConnell said in his prepared remarks. "A moment when I am certain I have helped preserve the ideals I so strongly believe. It arrived today."
• McConnell said he plans to serve out his Senate term, which ends in January 2027, "albeit from a different seat in the chamber."
• Aides said McConnell's announcement about the leadership post was unrelated to his health. The Kentucky senator had a concussion from a fall last year and two public episodes where his face briefly froze while he was speaking.

• McConnell gave no specific reason for the timing of his decision, which he has been contemplating for months, but he cited the recent death of his wife's youngest sister as a moment that prompted introspection. "The end of my contributions are closer than I'd prefer," McConnell said.
• But his remarks were also light at times. He noted that when he arrived in the Senate, "I was just happy if anybody remembered my name." During his campaign in 1984, when Ronald Reagan was visiting Kentucky, the president called him "Mitch O'Donnell."
• "I love the Senate," he said in his prepared remarks. "It has been my life. There may be more distinguished members of this body throughout our history, but I doubt there are any with more admiration for it."
• But, he added, "Father Time remains undefeated. I am no longer the young man sitting in the back, hoping colleagues would remember my name. It is time for the next generation of leadership."
• There will be a time to reminisce, he said, but not today. "I still have enough gas in the tank to thoroughly disappoint my critics and I intend to do so with all the enthusiasm which they have become accustomed."

(More Mitch McConnell stories.)