WASHINGTON >> Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican and longest-serving Senate leader who played a pivotal role in obstructing major Democratic agenda items and stacking the federal courts with conservatives, said Thursday that he would not seek another term in 2026.

In a speech on the Senate floor that fell on his 83rd birthday, McConnell made official what had been widely expected since he announced last year that he would step down as Republican leader. Representing Kentucky was “the honor of a lifetime,” he said, but “I will not seek this honor an eighth time. My current term in the Senate will be my last.”

McConnell has dealt with a series of health issues over the past year, including back-to-back falls recently that left him temporarily using a wheelchair to navigate the Capitol.

McConnell established himself as a tactician in the Senate during 18 years as minority and majority leader, making shrewd use of the chamber’s rules to thwart opponents and empower allies, including President Donald Trump. He blocked President Barack Obama from filling a Supreme Court seat toward the end of his tenure and then led a Republican effort to install deeply conservative jurists on the bench under the first Trump administration, culminating in the confirmation of three Supreme Court justices.