Roy Blunt won’t run for reelection in 2022, likely setting up crowded GOP primary
Missouri Republican Sen. Roy Blunt announced he will retire at the end of his current term, setting up what is expected to be a hotly contested race to fill the open seat.
Blunt, 71, announced his decision Monday morning in a YouTube video, shot outside his parents’ dairy barn in Webster County. He used it as the backdrop to reflect on his long journey from milking cows to the U.S. Senate.
“In every job Missourians have allowed me to have, I’ve tried to do my best. In almost 12,000 votes in the Congress, I’m sure I wasn’t right every time, but you really make that decision based on the information you have at the time,” Blunt said.
“After 14 General Election victories — three to county office, seven to the United States House of Representatives, and four statewide elections — I won’t be a candidate for reelection to the United States Senate next year.”
Missouri is generally seen as a safe Republican seat. But with a 50-50 Senate, any open seat race is sure to draw significant spending from both parties and array of candidates.
Blunt, a high school and college history instructor, was appointed Greene County Clerk in 1973, the same year President Joe Biden arrived in Washington as a member of the U.S. Senate. After 12 years as clerk, Blunt served two terms as Missouri secretary of state, the top election official in the state.
He was elected to the U.S. House in 1996 and eventually rose to House majority whip during George W. Bush’s presidency. Blunt’s family followed him into politics — his son Matt Blunt served as Missouri governor from 2005 to 2009.
The elder Blunt jumped from the House to the Senate in the 2010 election to succeed fellow Republican Kit Bond. He survived a close reelection contest in 2016 against then-Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander, winning by less than 3 percentage points.
His retirement announcement was closely held, but it comes after weeks of speculation in Missouri political circles that the senator could retire or face a primary challenge.
Blunt, the No. 4 Republican in the Senate, is the latest in a string of retirement announcements from senior Republicans. Five other GOP senators won’t seek re-election in 2022, including Ohio Sen. Rob Portman who,like Blunt, was first elected to the Senate in 2010.
Portman explicitly mentioned partisan gridlock as a factor when he announced his decision in January. Blunt didn’t make any reference to it Monday, but it likely played a role in the decision for a senator who has long preferred pragmatic deal-making over the brinkmanship that has increasingly come to define the Senate.
Blunt is relatively young by Senate standards. Twenty senators are older than Blunt.
“Someone, I think, in a few years will go ‘boy, what happened where we lost all the people like Roy Blunt?’” said James Harris, a Jefferson City-based GOP strategist.
“He is the person that likes to work together and so much has changed in Congress and I think what’s going to change in the United States Senate to where it’s much more hyperpartisan now,” Harris said. “Do you want to continue serving in that body or do you want to go on and enjoy other things in your life?”
Blunt opposed fellow Missouri GOP Sen Josh Hawley’s effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election, which could have left him vulnerable to a primary challenge from a candidate aligned with former President Donald Trump.
Former Gov. Eric Greitens, who left office in 2018 amid multiple scandals, has repeatedly attacked Blunt in right-wing media in recent weeks and linked the senator to Biden as he has hinted at a possible Senate run.
For his part, Hawley praised Blunt Monday as “a Missouri institution” and a “consummate legislator” who has “worked tirelessly for the state he loves and has served Missourians with distinction.”
Former Missouri Sen. John Danforth, an outspoken critic of Hawley’s effort to overturn the election, appeared to contrast Blunt against the state’s junior senator in a statement Monday.
“For Roy public service has never been about himself, let alone about anger and confrontation,” Danforth said.
Blunt’s retirement will set up a scramble to replace him, much like Kansas in 2020 with the retirement of Sen. Pat Roberts.
Kander said on Twitter that he would not run in 2022 regardless of Blunt’s retirement and would support the eventual Democratic nominee. Former state Sen. Scott Sifton and Kansas City activist Timothy Shepard are already pursuing the Democratic nomination.
But after a steady string of GOP victories in statewide races in recent elections, the Republican field promises to be even more crowded.
Republicans also hold six of the state’s eight congressional districts. St. Louis area Rep. Ann Wagner considered a Senate run in 2018, but opted against it after the party establishment coalesced around Hawley.
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, Missouri Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick and Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe have all successfully run on a statewide ballot and would all be contenders for a Senate seat.
Kehoe on Monday kept the door open to a Senate campaign. In a statement thanking Blunt for his service, the lieutenant governor said he and his wife “intend to spend some time talking with friends, family and supporters about how I can best contribute to the future of our great state.”
But there’s also a chance for outsider candidates in a state with a strong populist bent. A Missouri GOP operative floated retired NASCAR driver Carl Edwards, a Missouri native, as another potential candidate.
Blunt developed a reputation for pragmatism during his time in both the House and the Senate during which he forged cross-aisle relationships and steered federal money toward Missouri.
“I think the country in the last decade or so has fallen off the edge of too many politicians saying if you vote for me I’ll never compromise on anything. And that’s a philosophy that particularly does not work in a democracy,” Blunt said at a Monday Springfield-Branson National Airport when asked about his advice to potential successors.
“You’ve got to see who’s there to work with you. Democracy’s not for sissies and you don’t get everything you want every time you want it.”
The top accomplishment touted by his office Monday was his tenure chairing the subcommittee which oversees public health funding. Blunt secured six consecutive funding increases for the National Institutes of Health, growing the research agency’s budget nearly 43 % or $12.9 billion over six years.
This led to billions more for Alzheimer’s and cancer research and brought hundreds of millions to Missouri institutions.
Blunt’s retirement decision comes after a tumultuous period in Washington.
Blunt waited until December to acknowledge Biden’s status as president-elect, but he was one of only two Missouri Republicans to oppose efforts overturn the Electoral College when Congress met on Jan. 6.
As Senate Rules chairman, Blunt was one of the lawmakers presiding over the Electoral College count when the Capitol was attacked by rioters. He was one of the lawmakers who made the decision would return to the Capitol once it was cleared by police to finish the count.
“Don’t worry about trash on the floor. Don’t worry about something that’s broken. If the microphone’s working and the camera that’s working, that’s all that matters,” Blunt told The Star in January, recalling the conversation with the Architect of the Capitol’s office.
“You need to send a message both to the country and to the world that something like this is not going to stop the United States.”
Blunt chaired the committee that oversaw Biden’s inauguration just two weeks after the attack. Appearing on stage with the new president, Blunt said the assault on the Capitol showed that a government designed to check itself “is both fragile and resilient.”
He voted to acquit Trump at his impeachment trial weeks later, contending that the former president could not be convicted after leaving office.
Blunt said that neither riot, nor the threat of primary challenge factored into his decision. “I’ve been moving toward this decision for a while,” he said.
As Blunt prepares to step away from public office, colleagues on both sides of the aisle offered tributes.
“Roy truly cares about the issues facing everyday Missourians and fights valiantly on their behalf,” said Rep. Vicky Hartzler, a Cass County Republican. “It has been a privilege to call him a congressional colleague for nearly a decade and I have gained much from his unrivaled experience and knowledge.”
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, Missouri’s senior Democrat, said Blunt had played a pivotal role in helping steer federal dollars to communities ravaged by flooding and Kansas City projects, such as the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.
“He has given his heart and soul to Missouri, and he deserves our sincere gratitude for his decades of service,” Cleaver said.
Kansas Republican Sen. Jerry Moran, who served with Blunt in both the House and Senate, said his “leadership and legislative knowledge will be greatly missed in the Senate. He is a friend and valued partner for many issues we have championed together to represent our neighboring states.”
The Star’s Luke Nozicka contributed to this report from Springfield.
This story was originally published March 8, 2021 at 10:28 AM with the headline "Roy Blunt won’t run for reelection in 2022, likely setting up crowded GOP primary."
