Republican Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby will retire at the end of his current Senate term, the fourth sitting Republican senator to announce that he will not seek reelection in 2022.
“For everything, there is a season,” Shelby said in a statement on Monday. “I am grateful to the people of Alabama who have put their trust in me for more than forty years. I have been fortunate to serve in the U.S. Senate longer than any other Alabamian.”
Shelby, 86, was elected to the House in 1978 and the Senate in 1986. He switched parties from Democratic to Republican in 1994 and is the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee.
“Although I plan to retire, I am not leaving today. I have two good years remaining to continue my work in Washington. I have the vision and the energy to give it my all,” Shelby said.
Shelby’s retirement means that Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will lose a member in his conference with a similar old-school, pragmatic, legislative style.
Republican Sens. Richard Burr of North Carolina, Rob Portman of Ohio, and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania have also announced retirements after 2022, creating instant battleground campaign states for determining party control of the Senate in the second half of Biden’s term.
Shelby’s departure will make first-term Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a former college football coach, the senior senator from Alabama. Tuberville, with the endorsement of Trump, defeated former attorney general and former Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions in a primary. Trump was still bitter at Sessions for reusing himself from a special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Shelby made waves when he expressed opposition to 2017 Republican Alabama Senate nominee Roy Moore, who was accused of sexual harassment and assault, contributing to the victory of former Democratic Alabama Sen. Doug Jones.
The longtime fixture of the Senate has a cordial working relationship with top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, and the two worked through numerous budget crises and government shutdowns together.
Shelby will be one of only six Republicans to sit through three presidential impeachment trials, with former President Donald Trump’s trial starting on Tuesday.
