Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) decision to step down may have been months in the making, but the news took a number of his Republican members by surprise. 

McConnell, the longest-serving Senate leader of all time, announced on Wednesday that this Congress would be his last as head of the GOP conference. The outgoing leader faced nearly a year of speculation about his plans beyond the 118th Congress, the result of his sour relationship with former President Donald Trump and a pair of highly publicized medical episodes that prompted concerns about his health.