Maryland Senate President Thomas “Mike” Miller (D) will leave his leadership post at the beginning of the next session, bringing to an end the longest tenure of any state legislative leader in the country.

Miller told Democratic senators of his plans at a meeting Thursday in Annapolis, according to The Baltimore Sun.

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The 76-year-old has been fighting metastatic prostate cancer for the last year, but he plans to remain in the Senate, where he represents parts of three counties north and east of Washington.

“After 34 years of being president of the Senate, my mind is still strong, but my body is weak,” Miller said at a press conference Thursday. “We need somebody younger, and we have those people present in the room today.”

“It’s been a great run. I’ve enjoyed every minute of it,” Miller said.

Miller first won office in the state House in 1970. He moved to the Senate in 1975, and he became Senate president in 1987. He has served under five governors, and he is such a fixture in Annapolis that one wing of the state Senate office building is named in his honor.

“As the longest continuously serving presiding officer in the nation, President Miller has been a strong, unifying leader for the legislature and the state. His steady presence and trademark humor will be deeply missed as President, but we are pleased to know that Mike will continue to represent the people of District 27 in the Senate,” Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said in a statement.

Only one other legislative leader, Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan (D), has held his leadership post longer than Miller. But Madigan spent two years in the minority when Republicans seized control of his chamber in the mid-1990s, making Miller the longest continuously serving legislative leader in the country.

In a state that has turned increasingly liberal, Miller stands apart, a more centrist leader from a rural community who collects guns in his free time. He has never faced a serious challenge to his leadership — Democrats have controlled the Maryland Senate since 1900, and they have held veto-proof majorities in both chambers since 1922 — but his caucus has evolved over time.

Though he opposed a 2012 bill to legalize same-sex marriage, Miller allowed the bill to come up for a vote, which passed. The next year, he voted against repealing the death penalty, a top priority of then-Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), though he did not block the vote. Labor unions chafed at his reluctance to raise the statewide minimum wage.

But Miller was able to navigate perilous political waters, at times elevating newly elected liberal members to powerful positions — including some who beat his own longtime allies in party primaries — while also bolstering candidates in more swing districts.

Amid the tumultuous rise of ascendant liberals, Maryland’s legislative leaders remained remarkably stable. That changed earlier this year, when Speaker Michael Busch (D), who had run the House of Delegates since 2003, died after a brief illness.

Miller will be replaced by state Sen. Bill Ferguson (D), who was born more than a decade after Miller won office for the first time. Ferguson is a representative of the progressive faction in Maryland’s state Senate. He will serve alongside House Speaker Adrienne Jones (D), both of whom are from Baltimore.