MONTGOMERY, Alabama (AP) – US Senator Richard C. Shelby, the fourth oldest member of the Senate and a force in Alabama and national politics for more than four decades, announced on Monday that he will not seek 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 commissions and developed a reputation for using his influence and ability to direct billions of dollars in projects to his home state of Alabama.
Shelby is the fourth Republican Senate to announce his retirement, following the Sens. 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 that he will not seek re-election. “I am grateful to the people of Alabama, who have placed their trust in me for more than forty years.”
His departure will leave a vacuum of power – and open the stage for a chaotic race to occupy the seat at a time when the national Republican Party is deeply divided in its future direction after former President Donald Trump’s term. Although Shelby accumulated a record of far-right conservative votes, the measured Republican senator did not adopt the bombastic populist style of some Republicans.
Shelby’s official announcement that he would not run for re-election in 2022 came three days after the Associated Press reported that he had indicated to the allies that he would not flee again.
“Serving in the US Senate has been an opportunity of a lifetime,” said the senator in his statement. “I did my best to face the challenges and find ways to improve the daily lives of all Americans. I also focused on the economic challenges of Alabamians. ”
The senator stressed that he will end the two years remaining for the current term and said: “I have vision and energy to give my all”.
Shelby was first elected as a conservative Democrat during the party’s days of declining power in the Deep South. In the House of Representatives, he belonged to a caucus of southern conservatives known as the weevil.
Shelby was elected to the Senate in 1986, but moved to the Republican Party in 1994. He spent the past two years as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, before Democrats took control of the chamber.
“Few people have had a more important impact on our state than Senator Richard Shelby,” said Alabama Governor Kay Ivey, who added, “The people of Alabama owe him a debt of gratitude.”
Shelby, who served in the Senate for longer than any Alabamian, was one of the last of the “old-fashioned southern politicians who saw it as their main task to direct the maximum federal budget to the state, instead of jumping on the hot button. issue of the day, ”described political consultant David Mowery said.
Shelby developed a friendship with Senator Patrick Leahy, the top Democrat on the Senate’s funding 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 the party by announcing that she could not support Republican Roy Moore, who faced charges of sexual misconduct, in the special election for another seat in the Alabama Senate. Shelby said he was writing under another Republican name.
And last month, he was the only Republican in the Alabama Congressional delegation who voted to accept Arizona and Pennsylvania-certified presidential election results. The other Republicans opposed the certifications in support of Trump’s baseless claim that the election was stolen.
Former Alabama Governor Bob Riley noted that during his decades in office, the senator helped to change the state’s economic landscape with his support for projects ranging from the port in Mobile to university buildings, the FBI campus and the Space Command headquarters in Huntsville.
“It’s very rare for you to have someone who can maneuver through the minutiae of life in the Senate and be as effective as he is,” said Riley.
Former Congressman Bradley Byrne said that when he was first elected to Congress he was leafing through an appropriations bill and commented to Shelby that the senator had done very well for the state.
“He just smiled and said, ‘I got everything I asked for.’ Then he looked very serious and said, ‘I can’t vote for it.’ I said why not and he said because he spends a lot of money. ”
The Senate seat is expected to bring a flood of candidates.
On the Republican side, potential candidates include Shelby’s former chief of staff, Katie Boyd Britt, who now leads an influential business lobby and would likely have the senator’s support if he decided to enter the race. Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill suspended his 2020 Senate campaign when former attorney general Jeff Sessions entered the race. Representative Mo Brooks and Lynda Blanchard, Trump’s ambassador to Slovenia, should keep an eye on the seat.
Brooks faced criticism for his role in the January 6 siege of the United States Capitol. At a rally before the deadly uproar, he told the crowd that it was time to “drop names and kick ass,” but has since maintained that he was talking about fighting at the polls.
Merrill said last week that he would consider running if Shelby did not run for re-election. Brooks said he would run for re-election to his own seat or the Senate seat in 2022.