Wisconsin Republican Jim Sensenbrenner, the second longest-serving member of the U.S. House of Representatives, will not run for a 22nd term, he said Wednesday.

Sensenbrenner made his first public announcement Wednesday on The Mark Belling Show on WISN-AM (1130).

In a separate interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, he said, “I think the time has come to basically turn over the page in the 5th District.”

The 76-year-old congressman has long represented the GOP’s geographic base in Wisconsin — the suburban, exurban and rural communities north and west of Milwaukee County that historically turn out in droves for Republican candidates and provide a large share of the party’s activists and political leaders.

Sensenbrenner’s departure after 2020 is likely to draw huge interest from within a district packed with aspiring GOP politicians.

It also makes him the latest of several big-name Republicans to leave the Wisconsin stage: former House Speaker Paul Ryan (who retired after 2018), former Gov. Scott Walker (who was defeated in 2018) and current congressman Sean Duffy, who announced he would step down this month to focus on the health problems of the baby he and his wife are expecting.

Related: PolitiFact: Looks back on our U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner fact-checks

Sensenbrenner said he is not retiring for health reasons or because he is worried about a re-election challenge. He is at least the 15th GOP member of the U.S. House to announce retirement this year, a group that includes Duffy.

Sensenbrenner said his decision was also unrelated to serving in the minority, where he has spent virtually half his congressional career, and unrelated to the turbulence of Donald Trump’s presidency.

He plans to serve out his current term and said he will back “the Republican ticket from top to bottom” in 2020.

“I’ve said all along I’d know when the right time came and I’ve come to the conclusion it has,” he said. “There is nobody running against me. Nobody can say they’ve pushed me out. I am doing this on my terms.”

Said Sensenbrenner:

“You can see the end of the line sometime. Being able to do this on my timetable rather than after a redistricting in 2022 will allow me to go out on a high note … This is just me feeling the time would be coming in the next few years, and I think this is the best time for me personally, and for both the Republican Party and for me politically.”

At 42 years, a Wisconsin milestone

Toward the end of next year, Sensenbrenner will surpass former Democratic congressman Dave Obey as the longest-serving member of Congress ever from Wisconsin — at 42 years. That is a landmark Sensenbrenner noted in Wednesday’s interview.

He served six years as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, where his best-known accomplishment was the USA Patriot Act that was passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and then modified in later years.

He had his hand in numerous other issues that came through that committee, including the Voting Rights Act. While compiling a very conservative voting record, he also worked across the aisle with liberal Democrats on some issues, including civil liberties.

Sensenbrenner also served four years as chairman of the science committee.

The veteran lawmaker also served as one of the House “managers” in the impeachment of Democratic President Bill Clinton in 1998.

The GOP’s internal rules limiting committee chairs to six years has kept him from leading any House committees since 2007. But the lawmaker said he supported term limits on committee chairs and pointed out that he continued serving in the House long after his chairmanships were over. He said he did that in part to “protect” legislation he wrote or helped to pass, such as the Patriot Act.

Sensenbrenner said he does not plan to take sides in a GOP primary for his current seat.

“The only advice I can give to all them is don’t kill each other,” he said of Republicans interested in seeking his seat.

In a statement, former speaker Ryan said this:

“Jim Sensenbrenner has been a close friend, a supportive colleague, and a mentor of mine for decades. He has provided an amazing example for generations of Wisconsin Republican legislators to follow and showed us how to be effective advocates and representatives.

“Jim has spent the last 50 years protecting our constitutional rights, ensuring the U.S. led the way in science and space, and fighting tirelessly for conservative principles. He is a statesman, a person of remarkable character, and his presence and wisdom will be sorely missed in Congress. Jim Sensenbrenner has had a profound impact on my life and has always put the people of Wisconsin first. I wish Jim and his family well as he begins this new chapter in 2021.”

In a statement of his own, Sensenbrenner said:

“I have held over 100 town hall meetings each year; I have helped countless individuals when they have encountered difficulties with the federal government; I've taken 23,882 votes on the House Floor; been the lead sponsor or co-sponsor of 4,299 pieces of legislation; ushered 768 of them through the House for passage, and watched as 217 of them have been signed into law by six different presidents.

"I think I am leaving this district, our Republican Party, and most important, our country, in a better place than when I began my service.”

The partisan makeup of Sensenbrenner’s 5th Congressional District makes it likely to remain in GOP hands after the 2020 election, despite the political uncertainty that often comes with an incumbent’s retirement. While Republican support has weakened in some suburban communities in the district, Trump carried the district 57% to 37% over Hillary Clinton in 2016, and Walker carried it for governor 61% to 37% over Democrat Tony Evers.

The district contains some of the highest-turnout Republican communities in America. As a result of his lopsided margins and the district’s high voting rate, Sensenbrenner has in several elections received more votes than any other GOP House candidate in the country. He won re-election in 2018 with 62% of the vote.