Alabamian’s exit to leave Senate power void
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — U.S. Sen. Richard C. Shelby, the Senate’s fourth-most senior member and a force in Alabama politics for more than four decades, announced Monday that he will not seek a seventh term in office in 2022.
The 86-year-old Republican has spent more than 40 years in Washington, serving first in the House and then the Senate. During his time in the chamber, he chaired four major Senate committees, using his position and dealmaking skills to direct billions in projects back to his home state.
His departure will leave a power void — and set the stage for a chaotic race to fill the seat at a time when the national Republican Party is deeply split on its future direction after former President Donald Trump’s term in office. Though Shelby has amassed a far-right conservative voting record, the measured Republican senator has not embraced the bombastic populist style of some Republicans.
Shelby’s official announcement came three days after the Associated Press reported that he had indicated to allies that he wouldn’t run again.
“For everything, there is a season,” Shelby said. “I am grateful to the people of Alabama who have put their trust in me for more than 40 years.”
The senator stressed that he will finish the two years remaining in his current term and remarked, “I have the vision and the energy to give it my all.”
Shelby was first elected as a conservative Democrat during the party’s waning days of power in the Deep
South. In the House of Representatives he belonged to a caucus of Southern conservatives known as the boll weevils.
He was elected to the Senate in 1986 but switched to the GOP in 1994. He has spent the past two years as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, before Democrats gained control of the chamber.
“Few people have had a more consequential impact on our state than Sen. Richard Shelby,” said Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, who added, “The people of Alabama owe him a debt of gratitude.”
Shelby served in the Senate longer than any Alabamian. Former Alabama Gov. Bob Riley noted that during his decades in office, the senator helped changed the economic landscape of the state with his support for the port in Mobile and an FBI campus and Space Command headquarters in Huntsville.
“It is very seldom that you have anyone that can maneuver through the minutia of Senate life and be as effective as he has been. … All over the state of Alabama, he’s made a tremendous difference,” Riley said.
Shelby’s departure will leave the state without its most veteran voice in Washington.
“Serving in the U.S. Senate has been the opportunity of a lifetime,” the senator said in his statement. “I have done my best to address challenges and find ways to improve the day-today lives of all Americans. I have also focused on the economic challenges of Alabamians.”
A list of potential GOP replacements is waiting in the wings. Possible candidates include Shelby’s former chief of staff, Katie Boyd Britt, who now heads an influential business lobby and would likely have the senator’s backing if she decided to enter the race.