Hatch announces retirement, Romney likely to run The 83-year-old Utah Republican resisted heavy pressure from President Donald Trump to seek reelection.

Orrin Hatch, the longest-serving Republican senator, announced Tuesday he will not seek reelection in November. The move sets the stage for a likely run for his Utah seat by former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

“Every good fighter knows when to hang up the gloves. And for me, that time is soon approaching," the 83-year-old senator, who was first elected in 1976, said in a video announcement. "That’s why after much prayer and discussion with family and friends, I’ve decided to retire at the end of this term.”


The news caps months of speculation about Hatch’s political future. President Donald Trump tried aggressively to persuade Hatch to seek another term, orchestrating a visit to Utah in which the president lavished praise on Hatch and had the senator accompanty him on Air Force One.

Trump’s move was aimed in no small part at keeping Romney out of the Senate. During the 2016 campaign, Romney emerged as a de facto leader of the “Never Trump” movement, calling then-candidate Trump a “fraud” and “phony” who was unfit to serve.

The two warmed to each other somewhat after the election, when Trump considered Romney to be his secretary of state. Yet the president and his closest advisers remain suspicious of the former Massachusetts governor. Romney has at times gone out of his way to criticize the president, including for Trump's response to white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, last year.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday declined to weigh in on a potential Romney bid for the Senate, instead thanking Hatch for his time in the Senate — particularly on the recent tax battle that led to Trump's first major legislative achievement.

"The president certainly praises his service and is very sad to see Sen. Hatch leave and knows that he will certainly be missed,” Sanders said.

An announcement from Senator Orrin G. Hatch. #utpol pic.twitter.com/UeItaLjR3j — Senator Hatch Office (@senorrinhatch) January 2, 2018

But with Hatch out of the race, Romney will be the heavy favorite. The former Massachusetts governor, who is now residing in Utah, is widely popular in the state. He has spent the past few months huddling with key players in the state to discuss a prospective bid, including prominent businessman Kem Gardner and state House speaker Greg Hughes.

In a statement posted to Facebook Tuesday afternoon, Romney made no mention of a potential Senate bid.

"I join the people of Utah in thanking my friend, Senator Orrin Hatch for his more than 40 years of service to our great state and nation," Romney said. "As Chairman of the Senate Finance and Judiciary Committees and as the longest-serving Republican senator in U.S. history, Senator Hatch has represented the interests of Utah with distinction and honor. Ann and I wish Senator Orrin Hatch and his loving wife Elaine all the best in their future endeavors."

Hatch, who as the most senior Senate Republican serves as president pro tempore and is third in line for the presidency, had been coy for months about whether he would seek an eighth term — particularly as the Republican tax overhaul effort unfolded on Capitol Hill.

As chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, Hatch recently helped shepherd through the biggest change to the tax code in a generation. The legislation slashed the corporate tax rate and reduced individual rates, while scrapping a key provision of Obamacare that required everyone to have insurance.

“Orrin’s long list of accomplishments means he will depart as one of the most productive members ever to serve in this body," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday. "But even more than what Orrin did, his friends and colleagues here will remember how he did it. We’ll remember the unfailing energy, kindness and straightforward honesty that he brought to work every day."

Though the tax effort was contentious and partisan, Hatch also built up a record during his four decades on Capitol Hill of working with influential Democrats to produce landmark bills.

One is the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which Hatch created alongside Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) in 1997. Funding for the law lapsed as of Sept. 30, although Congress has passed a short-term infusion of money for the popular program benefiting 9 million children from lower-income households.

Hatch and Kennedy had struck a close friendship: A songwriter in his free time, Hatch penned a tune for the Massachusetts Democrat when he remarried in 1992. The Utah senator also had an unusual ally in Muhammad Ali. The two first met in 1988 when Ali thanked Hatch — an amateur boxer in his youth — for helping a friend get confirmed to a government job. Ali campaigned for Hatch, and their friendship lasted until Ali's death in June 2016.

Hatch, who also chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee, was among the first senators to support the DREAM Act with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) in 2001 — legislation that would create a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as minors.

Hatch played an influential role on fights over judgeships when he was the lead Republican on the Judiciary Committee, although he also cultivated a reputation of working with Democrats to push consensus court picks. He has participated in confirmation battles over 14 Supreme Court justices.

In his 2002 autobiography "Square Peg," Hatch recounted how he suggested two names to the Supreme Court to President Bill Clinton: Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

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"I indicated I thought they would be confirmed easily," Hatch wrote in the memoir. "I knew them both and believed that, while liberal, they were highly honest and capable jurists and their confirmation would not embarrass the President."

In 2016, however, Hatch became one of the most fervent advocates of the controversial GOP strategy to deny a confirmation hearing for Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama's final nominee to the Supreme Court. That was despite Hatch's past praise for the jurist.

Known as an institution within the Senate, Hatch also had national aspirations. He waged a run for the GOP presidential nomination in 2000, despite the long odds against Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

Once Hatch retires, Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi will become the chamber’s most senior Senate Republican, though Cochran has also faced speculation that he could soon retire. Next in line after Cochran in seniority among Senate Republicans is Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa.

Grassley is also in line to take over Hatch’s influential Finance Committee gavel if Republicans keep control of the Senate in the 2018 midterm elections. But Grassley — who can serve for two more years as Finance chairman under the Senate GOP’s term limits — would have to give up his position as head of the Senate Judiciary Committee to do so.

The Iowa Republican declined to say Tuesday whether he would try to return as Finance chairman if Republicans keep the Senate majority this fall.

"I want him to be happy," Grassley said of Hatch. "I’ve worked with him on a lot of things, he’s worked with me on a lot of things. And it's just a personal decision, I’m sure, and his leadership will be missed in the Senate."