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.
Good one less twit in the party of stupid
What exactly is she talking about in these two statement?
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."
Protect academic excellence," Bachmann said.
Goodbye and good riddance.
What a day? These news have made my day already. She read everything on the Wall and understood this time is quite different, that she can't make it. One by one all crazy people will be gone and the House will settle down with reasonable, good thinkers, ready all the time to do what people asked them to do. Adios Michelle. You won't be missed.
Oh no.
I was going to vote for her for president in 2016.
Now what?
😉
This has nothing to do with her being investigated for illegal campaign financing.
Riiiiight.
There is a God!!!
good riddance to bad trash.
Hope she doesn't cause more harm to our country during the remaining time she's in Congress.
The bad news is TV comedy will lose a great source of material. The good news is the food industry will gain a great truck stop waitress.
This will leave her more time to practice witchcraft.....
And good riddance to her. MN is a winner today.
Maybe there really is a God! Thank-you.. Thank-you
Bright news for America!
Just remember: even though she will be gone from congress, we will be paying her congressional salary to her for the rest of her life. We need to do two things: 1) change their retirement to the same as every other American including health care; and 2) don't elect nut job idiots in the first place. I'm sure her next step will be Fox News. Every one who does any air time on that channel is just like her – nothing true comes out of their mouths.
I am sure she will find dumb enough people who will pay her to keep ranting. I would want her but I presume she will nag the hell out of me.
Don't let the door it ya where the good lord split ya
she will not be missed by anybody, except comedians...
I find it hard to believe, that there are no responses. it must be a cover up
Life just won't be the same without Michele Bachmann to point and laugh at. We'll miss ya, kiddo.
"...and I will do my best to set parameters that will be sure to extinguish minorities of all colors and orientations. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than watching them being born and setting them up to die."
1 corrupt teabagger down... many more to go.
You can't serve "PAC Pledges" before your country...
and expect to get re-elected in 2014.
NEGOTIATE Bi-partisan Legislation...
or GTH out of DC.
Let her burn just as brightly as Palin, shunned by mainstream Republicans as they finally realize what a maroon she is.
She deserves no less.
Looks like she is under investigation for tax evasion. She is scared.
Great! Now maybe the people of the great state of Minnesota can elect a representative with an intelligence level greater than that of a six year old.