Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid announced Friday he will not seek reelection next year, a decision that will reshape the hierarchy of the Senate Democratic Caucus and upend Nevada’s political landscape.

In a farewell video, Reid, 75, said his brutal eye injury in January that nearly left him blind in one eye gave him time to reevaluate his life and career. His departure will deprive the Senate of one of its fiercest infighters, who played a lead role in shepherding President Barack Obama’s health care law through the chamber and regularly stymied Republicans.


“I’ve had time to ponder and to think. We’ve got to be more concerned about the country, the Senate, the state of Nevada than us,” Reid said. “And as a result of that, I’m not going to run for reelection.”

A person close to Reid said he made the decision before his January exercise injury that broke bones around his eye and ribs and led to multiple surgeries. Reid wanted to sit with the decision for a while and see how he felt about it. While on the mend at his Washington condo during the first part of the legislative session, Reid did not change his mind but kept his decision secret, even vowing publicly to run for reelection.

He plans to remain Democratic leader until the end of next year when the current Congress adjourns. He informed President Barack Obama of his decision Thursday night, a source said.

The announcement caps a career in Washington spanning more than three decades, starting in 1983 in the House. After winning a Senate seat in 1986, Reid tended heavily to home-state matters: a planned nuclear waste dump in Southern Nevada, and mining and grazing policies that affected the vast rural northern part of his state, much of it under federal control and where Reid was widely disliked.

First and foremost, Reid was a relentless critic of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository about 100 miles outside of Las Vegas, repeatedly gumming up the Senate to slow progress on the multi-billion dollar project, which was ultimately scrapped.

Reid, a soft-spoken, uninspiring public speaker but savvy backroom political operator, plotted his way up the rungs of Democratic leadership. In 2005 he became Senate Democratic leader, and two years later majority leader.

As leader, Reid developed a no-nonsense, hard-ball style that came to define his stewardship. He muscled through Senate passage of the Affordable Care Act on Christmas Eve in 2009 on a straight party-line vote, when his party controlled 60 seats, enough to overcome a GOP filibuster. In 2013, Reid took the unprecedented step of invoking the so-called “nuclear option,” a move that gutted filibuster rules for presidential nominations that critics said altered the deliberative nature of the body.

And as a senator, Reid’s politics grew more liberal, moving to the left on issues like gun control, abortion rights and immigration.

But after losing the Senate majority last year, a number of Democrats blamed his tight grip on the amendment process, and the lack of Senate votes, for being a liability in the midterm elections that led to the loss of nine Democratic seats. For the first time in his career, Reid faced open dissension among senators about returning to the Democratic leadership post. As he ran for minority leader unopposed, Reid lost at least six votes from his colleagues, a sign that he was for the first time vulnerable in the top post.

“I want to be able to go out at the top of my game,” Reid told The New York Times.

With his departure now imminent, Democrats who have been waiting for a chance to succeed Reid will have the opportunity to run for leader. Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, who currently is the chief messenger for the caucus and serves as the No. 3, is viewed within the chamber as the clear frontrunner. It’s unclear yet if others may run, but Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat, endorsed Schumer for the job Friday.

Such a race, however, typically occurs after an election, behind closed doors, and is conducted via a secret ballot, meaning there are an array of possibilities that could take place.

Moreover, his decision throws into flux the Nevada Senate race, which was already expected to be one of the most heavily contested in the country. Reid had been insisting he would run for reelection, interviewing staff and fundraising for a campaign. He even told his staff at a private meeting in the Senate Mansfield Room in February that he was running for reelection.

With poor approval ratings back home, Reid faced an all-out battle to survive, similar to the improbable victory he pulled off in 2010 against tea party favorite Sharron Angle.

Now Democrats will look closely at Catherine Cortez Masto, a former Nevada attorney general. While the Republicans hope that the popular Nevada governor, Brian Sandoval, will run, he has long been viewed as very unlikely to do so. The Nevada Senate GOP leader, Michael Roberson, has been seen as a potential candidate for the seat.

Born in the dusty mining town of Searchlight, Nev., and raised in a tiny house with no running water, Reid grew to be a fixture in Las Vegas and Nevada politics for years before becoming one of Washington’s most powerful figures. After first being elected as his state’s lieutenant governor at age 30 in 1970, he was defeated in his first try at the Senate four years later.

He then lost a bid for mayor but found his footing atop the Nevada Gaming Commission, where he battled organized crime and his wife even found a bomb in the family car. Before his career in politics, Reid was an amateur boxer and served as a Capitol Police Officer in Washington.

“Someone with my background, my upbringing, to have the experiences I’ve had is really a miracle,” Reid said in the video. “And I want you to know that I am so grateful for your invaluable help. I have done my best. I haven’t been perfect, but I’ve really tried my hardest to represent the people of the state of Nevada.”

Burgess Everett contributed to this report.