Citing “partisan gridlock,” Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) announced Monday that he will not be running for a third term in the 2022 Senate election.
“It has gotten harder and harder to break through the partisan gridlock and make progress on substantive policy, and that has contributed to my decision,” said a statement from the Senator’s office.
This comes as a bit of a surprise considering the incumbent Senator won the 2016 race, and was projected to clinch a third-term victory for Republicans in a key swing-state.
There is speculation that Portman’s statement comes at a strategic moment. Choosing not to run again would enable the Senator to escape the political minefield of former President Trump’s impending impeachment trial, though the Senator has not made any further comment on the subject, as reported by AXIOS.
“We live in an increasingly polarized country where members of both parties are being pushed further to the right and further to the left, and that means too few people who are actively looking to find common ground.”
Read the full text of the statement here.
