Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey will not seek re-election in 2022 and will not run for governor.
The Republican announced at a press conference on Monday that he will serve out the remaining two years of his term in the Senate and then plans to return to the private sector.
“I want to say very clearly that representing the people of Pennsylvania – this big, beautiful, complicated, diverse state – has been an extraordinary, amazing honor, and still is,’ he said. ‘And it’s been, by far, the highlight of my professional life.
Toomey has long supported term limits and his decision not to run for a third term in the Senate was not a big surprise, though he had been considered a possible contender to run for governor of Pennsylvania in 2022. Toomey, who lives in the Allentown area, previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1999-2005, vowing before his first election not to run for more than three terms.
Still, he said on Monday that even though he thought he would only serve two terms in the Senate, his decision to leave public office in 2022 was personal, not political.
‘By the time I finish this term I will have been in public office for 18 years over a 24 year period…,’ he said. ‘Eighteen years is a long time. All of that time our family has lived in Pennsylvania. That was the right decision for our family and I’ve spent as little time as I can in Washington, coming back home as quickly as I can after the end of official business. But it still ends up being a lot of time away and I’m looking forward to more time back at home.’
Toomey said he has no specific plans for when he leaves office.
Prior to first running for Congress in 1998, Toomey had a career as a Wall Street banker. After finishing his third term in the House, he was president of the conservative economic organization Club for Growth from 2006 to 2009.
Toomey defeated Democrat Joe Sestak in 2010 to win one of Pennsylvania’s two U.S. Senate seats. He was re-elected in 2016, defeating Democrat Katie McGinty.
