Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch Announces Retirement, With Speculation Focused On Romney

The longest-serving Republican senator in American history is finally ready to call it quits.

Utah GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch announced on Tuesday that he will not run for re-election in 2018 and will leave the Senate at the end of his current term, after 42 years in his seat.

“When the president visited Utah last month, he said I was a fighter. I’ve always been a fighter. I was an amateur boxer in my youth, and I brought that fighting spirit with me to Washington,” Hatch said in a video statement. “But every good fighter knows when to hang up the gloves. And for me, that time is soon approaching.”

An announcement from Senator Orrin G. Hatch. #utpol pic.twitter.com/UeItaLjR3j

— Senator Hatch Office (@senorrinhatch) January 2, 2018

Hatch, 83, is the chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee. He worked with the Trump administration on the major tax bill that passed just before Christmas. It was an ambitious legislative goal that will cap off his historic Senate career.

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