Sen. Toomey Announces Retirement, Won’t Seek Office in 2022

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) speaks during a confirmation hearing before Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs at Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, on May 5, 2020. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) said that he'll retire from the U.S. Senate at the end of his current term, and won’t seek any political office in 2022.

“I will not be running for reelection in 2022 and I will not be running for governor,” Toomey said Oct. 5. “I will serve out the remainder of my term.”

The Pennsylvania senator said, “My plan is to go back to the private sector.”

During his announcement in a press conference in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Toomey highlighted his willingness to work with Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.)

“Across Pennsylvania, Senator Casey and I have developed a great working relationship,” he said. “He and I together have outpaced every other divided delegation in the Senate in the category of filling vacancies on the federal bench. We’ve done so with some wonderfully talented people across Pennsylvania.”

Toomey also says the Senate should move ahead with the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court after her nomination by President Donald Trump. He highlighted the president’s obligation to nominate a justice.

“It has very, very long been the custom in the United States that when the two organs of government responsible for the Supreme Court, for populating the court, that is to say, the president who nominates and the Senate that confirms, when those two institutions are led by the same party, then nominees are confirmed whether it is a presidential year or not,” he said.

During his final two years in office, Toomey said he will “work as hard as I possibly can,” adding: “I will have the luxury in a way of not having a campaign to manage at the same time.”

Toomey narrowly won reelection in 2016, the same year that Trump won Pennsylvania.

“The reasons why I have reached this decision are not political, they’re personal,” Toomey added.

“Eighteen years is a long time,” he said. “And I’ve spent little time as I can in Washington ... but it still ends up being a lot of time ... away from home. And I’m looking forward to more time back at home.”

There was speculation that Toomey might run for governor of Pennsylvania in 2022, when current Gov. Tom Wolf’s second and final term expires. Toomey noted that supporters suggested that he run for the state’s highest office.

The Philadelphia Inquirer first reported on Toomey’s decision not to run for reelection or for governor in 2022.

Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who ran for the Senate in 2016, told Politico that he might run for Toomey’s seat, saying, “2022 is wide open.”