Senator Richard Shelby will not run for reelection next year, announcing his long-awaited retirement on Monday, which culminated in a six-term term that included the leadership of the Senate Intelligence, Banking and Endowments committees.
Shelby, 86, was first elected in 1986 as a Democrat; he switched parties to become a Republican immediately after the Republican Party’s victory in the 1994 midterm elections.
The retirement of the powerful Alabamian will open a Senate seat in a safe Republican state, where now Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville just overthrew a Democratic candidate, Doug Jones, by more than 20 percentage points last November.