WASHINGTON – Sen. Harry Reid, the tough tactician who has led Senate Democrats since 2005, will not seek re-election next year, bringing an end to a three-decade congressional career that culminated with his push of President Barack Obama’s ambitious agenda against fierce Republican resistance.
Reid, 75, who suffered serious eye and facial injuries in a Jan. 1 exercise accident at his Las Vegas home, said he had been contemplating retiring from the Senate for months. He said his decision was not attributable either to the accident or to his demotion to minority leader after Democrats lost the majority in November’s midterm elections.
“I understand this place,” Reid said. “I have quite a bit of power as minority leader.”
He has confounded the new Republican majority this year by holding Democrats united against a proposal to gut the Obama administration’s immigration policies as well as a human-trafficking measure Democrats objected to over an anti-abortion provision.
“I want to be able to go out at the top of my game,” Reid said.
Reid’s tenure has become increasingly combative in recent years and included a procedural change on nominations that infuriated Republicans. He also came under fire for blocking floor debate, and even some of his Democratic colleagues suggested that he was stifling the Senate.
His departure at the end of 2016 will create an opening both at the top of the Senate Democratic hierarchy and in a Senate contest that would have been a megaspending slugfest in the presidential battleground of Nevada. Conservatives such as Charles G. and David H. Koch, the billionaire brothers, would have spared no expense in trying to oust him.
Sen. Charles E. Schumer of New York, who helped Democrats capture the Senate in 2006 and has led their political messaging operation, is considered the favorite to succeed Reid as party leader.
Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, could also be a contender for the job.
In Nevada, Catherine Cortez Masto, the state’s former attorney general, is considered a strong Democratic candidate with Reid out; the Republican field will be fluid and is likely to include Michael Roberson, a State Senate leader.
First elected to the House in 1982, the former trial lawyer and head of the Nevada gaming commission won his Senate seat in 1986 and joined the leadership about a decade later. Reid took over the top job in 2005 after Tom Daschle, then the leader, lost his re-election bid.
