Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) has privately indicated to his associates that he is not planning on running for re-election in 2022, the AP reported on Friday.
A Shelby spokesperson told the AP — which based its report on the account of one such unnamed associate — that the powerful Senate Republican is still considering whether to run, but said that there will “likely be an announcement forthcoming in the next few weeks.”
Until recently, when Democrats took back the committee gavel, Shelby was the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, an extremely envied post that gave him significant influence over government spending.
Before he was first elected to the Senate in 1986, Shelby, who is 86, served in the U.S. House for eight years and, before that, in the Alabama state Senate.
Several other GOP senators whose terms end in 2023 have also indicated they won’t run for re-election, including Sens. Pat Toomey (R-PA), Rob Portman (R-OH) and Richard Burr (R-NC).
