Rep. Bachmann looks forward to 'limitless' future, but not in the House
Updated Wednesday 5/29 at 10:30 a.m. ET
(CNN) - U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, a conservative firebrand whose bid for president last year ended after the Iowa caucuses, will not seek re-election to her Minnesota congressional seat in 2014.
Making her announcement in a video posted to her campaign website early Wednesday, Bachmann stressed she had no plans to fade from public view.
"Looking forward, after the completion of my term, my future is full, it is limitless, and my passions for America will remain," she announced.
Bachmann, who's in her fourth term representing Minnesota's 6th District, promised that there "is no future option or opportunity" that she "won't be giving serious consideration if it can help save and protect our great nation for future generations."
Bachmann staved off a tougher-than-expected challenge for her seat last November against Democrat Jim Graves, winning re-election by just under 5,000 votes. Graves has announced he will seek the seat again in 2014.
In her video announcement, Bachmann said her decision was not influenced by any concerns about winning reelection.
"I've always, in the past, defeated candidates who were capable, qualified, and well-funded. And I have every confidence that if I ran, I would again defeat the individual who I defeated last year, who recently announced that he is once again running," Bachmann said.
Nor was her decision based on any concerns over an ongoing congressional ethics inquiry into the improper transfer of campaign funds, Bachmann said in her video. She is also facing a Federal Election Commission complaint about her former presidential campaign.
"This decision was not impacted in any way by the recent inquiries into the activities of my former presidential campaign or my former presidential staff," she said. "It was clearly understood that compliance with all rules and regulations was an absolute necessity for my presidential campaign. And I have no reason to believe that that was not the case."
Bachmann's run for president in 2012 reached its peak in August 2011, when she beat out a slate of other candidates to win the Ames Straw Poll in the early voting state of Iowa, where she was born. Her campaign lost steam in the fall to other conservative candidates like Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, and she eventually placed sixth in the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses. She ended her presidential bid the next day.
In the eight-minute long video, Bachmann, an early supporter of the Tea Party movement, touted her work on a variety of conservative issues, promising to "to work vehemently and robustly to fight back against what most in the other party want to do to transform our country into becoming, which would be a nation that our founders would hardly even recognize today."
Bachmann was one of the leading supporters of the emerging tea party movement in 2010, founding the "tea party caucus" in the House of Representatives and delivering her own "tea party response" to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address. Most recently she organized a tea party rally on Capitol Hill protesting the Internal Revenue Service's admitted targeting of conservative groups applying for tax exempt status.
In her video, she said she wouldn't let up on the causes she championed as a U.S. representative.
"I promise you I have and I will continue to fight to protect innocent human life, traditional marriage, family values, religious liberty, and academic excellence," Bachmann said.
In a polite statement, National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Rep. Greg Walden wrote Bachmann "has been a tireless advocate and dedicated Representative for the people of Minnesota’s Sixth District."
"Michele was the first Republican woman elected to represent Minnesota in the U.S. House of Representatives, and she has worked hard each day to ensure that her constituents’ voices are heard in the halls of Congress," he continued.
Democrats were less laudatory - the House Majority PAC, which works to elect Democrats to Congress, wrote Bachmann's decision was "good news for the people of Minnesota and our nation."
"Bachmann voluntarily removing herself from Congress is a victory we can all celebrate today," the group's executive director Alixandria Lapp wrote.
CNN's Kevin Liptak and Martina Stewart contributed to this report.
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What a loser ,a prime example of the garbage of the gop teaparty morons and you can throw in Rubio ,lee and Cruz ,the hage bschmann did her self in and only fellow idiots would vote for the hage .
For some reason my day just got brighter...
Thank goodness. She's a liar, a crook, and a bigot. We need fewer of those people in the United States.
I guess she figured out she can make more money working for Faux News.
Thank God...
Don't let the door hit you in the butt on your way out, Shellykins. Turn around and let it hit you right square in the face.
Great decision. There IS a God in Heaven !!!!!!
Thank you, but please just fade out..............
Rand Paul and Rick Perry- are you guys as smart as Michelle to make the same decision?
Not relevant either. She will go the way of the dodo bird. Oh sorry, she is the dodo bird with a dodo bird brain. Her only real intelligence is that she recognizes that after all of her open mouth letting hot air out, there just is not enough hot air left to sustain her through another term. And also that the citizens have learned that she does not represent them and that she cannot win another term.
Thank God, one less nut bar in American politics! How she one 4 times is beyond imagination to begin with. I suspect if that is the type of person her district elects they wil chose a version Bachman 2.0
This is a great day for rational republicans!
Bloviating, ignorant, pathetic politician. Her and her husband are two of the weirdest ducks I've ever heard of. Goodbye, and good riddance. Now disappear and don't come back. The only thing you accomplished in your four terms is to prove that in general, the electorate is ignorant.
Good news for the 2016 election.
She broke the law and the GOP won't back her. That's why she's not running for another term. I just hope the tax evading Democrat running loses hard like last time.
Good Riddance! Other GOP extremist like her needs to follow suit for the better of thier party and this nation. One has to ask, what has she accomplished after 4 terms in Congress other than making a name for herself as some wide eyed crazy woman? Absolutely nothing.
Minnesota you can do better. Start by electing a sane person to fill her her seat the next time around.
Yeah, I don't buy it for a moment. Representative Bachmann has to know that her brand of crazy is no longer in vogue, and that her continued antics have only harmed her party. Chances are that she knows that she would face a primary challenge and likely lose after having proven herself an embarrassment to the state of Minnesota.
This is unbelievable. The person who in my view is the most qualified to be the President of this great nation is not seeking reelection? I don't believe this. I pray to our Lord that she changes her mind and comes back. Michelle Bachmann 2016.
She can make more money on talk circuit. Another Fox contributer. Big surprise. The only thing I don't get is why she was relected in the 1st place.
Best news ever. One less crazy in the HOUSE. I hope the rest follow her. (her Tea Party Crazies). Then maybe we can get something done.
Ah!!!! Minnesota will be free (in November of 2014) from its last tea-party crazy. Hallelujah!!! This is extremely good news!
Finally a piece of good news.
Traslation : Bachmann can't be re-elected.
"I promise you I have and I will continue to fight to protect innocent human life, traditional marriage, family values, religious liberty, and academic excellence," Bachmann said.
In other words she is anti-abortion, anti-divorce, anti-gay marriage, all for legislating morality, sees the church as the ultimate authority, and supports education (but only the right KIND of education).
My prayers have been answered.