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Lamar Alexander Will Not Seek Re-election in 2020 Senator Lamar Alexander Will Not Seek Re-election in 2020
(about 3 hours later)
WASHINGTON — Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee and one of the last bridges to bipartisanship in the Senate, announced on Monday that he will not seek re-election in 2020. WASHINGTON — Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee and one of the last bridges to bipartisanship in the Senate, announced on Monday that he would not seek re-election in 2020, citing a desire to leave the Senate “at the top of my game.”
In a statement, Mr. Alexander, 78, a senator since 2003 and a former Tennessee governor, said that “now it is time for someone else to have that privilege.” “I’ve had my turn,” Mr. Alexander, 78, said in an interview. “Everything comes to an end sometime, and it is good to know when that should be.”
Mr. Alexander, a two-time presidential candidate and former secretary of education, is known for his strong relationships with Democrats and Republicans and his efforts to forge bipartisan legislative deals, a fading art in a Senate increasingly driven by partisanship and polarization. His decision to leave is the latest evidence that Washington has become a less attractive place for legislators interested in steering a middle course on seemingly intractable issues such as education and health care. The departure of Mr. Alexander, a popular former two-term governor who twice unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination, will leave the polarized Senate without one of its few members with proven deal-making experience. His accomplishments included this year’s measure aimed at easing the opioid crisis and a second bill assuring more royalties to songwriters — a topic close to Mr. Alexander’s Nashville heart.
“We have got a fractured country,” Mr. Alexander said last year as he tried to broker a bipartisan plan to stabilize the Affordable Care Act. “This is the most important institution for creating a consensus on tough issues like health care, like civil rights, like elementary and secondary education.” His decision to leave is more evidence that Washington has become less attractive to legislators interested in steering a middle course on seemingly intractable issues such as education and health care.
The effort to repair former President Barack Obama’s signature health care legislation — with Senators Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, and Susan Collins, Republican of Maine — failed when Republican leaders refused to put two measures to a vote. That blockade was emblematic of broader bipartisan measures that tread on politically sensitive turf. Mr. Alexander, who was also the president of the University of Tennessee and secretary of education in the George Bush administration, conceded that finding compromise in the scorchingly partisan atmosphere of Congress could be challenging and that “the outside environment makes it more difficult.”
In recent years, old guard senators like Mr. Alexander have given way to brasher, more partisan lawmakers, many from the House. Representative Marsha Blackburn, a fellow Republican from Tennessee, will take retiring Senator Bob Corker’s seat in January, an example of the changing of the guard. “I think other people, other senators need to learn the skills and many already have them,” he said. “The Senate will always be a place for people who know how to work hard across the aisle to get a result.”
She praised Mr. Alexander for his work over the years and said in a statement, “His leadership is a model to be emulated.” It has not been all wins for Mr. Alexander. After Republicans were unsuccessful in repealing the Affordable Care Act, he led an effort to try to reach a bipartisan agreement to shore it up while lawmakers considered broader changes. But the attempt to repair former President Barack Obama’s signature health care legislation — in concert with Senators Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, and Susan Collins, Republican of Maine — collapsed. That blockade was emblematic of the fate of broader bipartisan measures that tread on politically sensitive turf.
Mr. Alexander also had limited success in trying to ease Senate rancor over judicial and executive branch nominations, and he said that problem was going to require serious intervention by a determined bipartisan group.
Mr. Alexander is held in high regard by his colleagues. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican majority leader who considered Mr. Alexander a close ally, on Monday called him “one of the most consequential senators on domestic policy in memory.” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, also had a strong relationship with Mr. Alexander.
“He gets things done because of his passion, his competitiveness as a legislator and his persistence,” Mr. Schumer said. “So both sides of the aisle respect and trust Lamar.”
Mr. Alexander made a surprise decision in 2012 to leave the Senate Republican leadership because of a desire to focus more on legislating than on political messaging.
With two years remaining as chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Mr. Alexander said he hoped to devote more time to lowering the overall cost of health care as a way to make insurance coverage more affordable.
He is the first senator to announce his plans for 2020, a presidential election year when control of the Senate will again be up for grabs. His departure comes after Senator Bob Corker, the other Tennessee Republican, decided not to seek re-election this year, meaning the state will lose senior members and committee chairmen in consecutive election cycles.
In recent years, old-guard senators like Mr. Alexander have given way to brasher, more partisan lawmakers, many from the House. Representative Marsha Blackburn, a fellow Republican from Tennessee, will take Mr. Corker’s seat in January, an example of the changing of the guard. Immediately after Mr. Alexander’s announcement, the conservative Club for Growth called on Mark Green, a conservative state legislator newly elected to the House, to seek the open seat.
Mr. Alexander said the state had many possible replacements, but he singled out Gov. Bill Haslam, a Republican, as a formidable candidate, should he choose to run. “We have a barn full of good candidates here,” he said.
Mr. Haslam said he was considering running for the seat.
The senator said his decision was not influenced by any worry about a primary challenge from the right, noting that he had developed a good relationship with President Trump, “though our styles are completely different.” Mr. Alexander said he called Mr. Trump on Sunday night and that before he could break the retirement news, the president said, “Let’s talk about you serving another 20 years.”
Some of Mr. Alexander’s past and present colleagues have struggled as they remained in the Senate well into their 80s, but he said that was not a specific motivation for his own decision to depart. He would be 86 at the end of his next term if he had run and won but said he decided back in August to step aside rather than get back on the ballot for a fourth attempt.
“I do feel like I am performing at a higher level than I ever did,” he said. “I get up every day feeling that I can do something to help the country and go to bed thinking that I have.”