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.
i found her quite amusing with her authentic american frontier gibberish.
Ms. Bachmann, that's a door "D O O R", don't let it hit you in the ass on your way out "O U T."
More money on Faux News (a la Palin).
Did she get a job offer from Fox News too?
Hubris and immoral conduct.
Best news of the day
Maybee she and Palin will get together for the dog and pony show.
Well I guess she can read after all....the writing on the wall at least.
Good Riddance. One less freak in the messed up GOP House. Thanks.
I am going to have party in honor of her leaving. I can't stand that woman.
While I also do not agree with her political opinion, I think it is petty to fall all over her like hyenas. There is an old cowboy saying: "You don't kick a fallen horse".
Can't say any of us will miss her.
Great news for America!
She is an embarrassment to the State of Minnesota. There is most certainly a dirty reason why she is stepping down. A tick like Michelle Bachmann would not stop sucking blood on her own. She was pried off because of some horrific piece of dirt.
Well, since we will have shelled out over 1 million dollars in salary and perks on Swiss Miss, can anyone point to any piece of legislation she authored that actually was signed into law? Anyone?
Thank you for your service Rep. Bachmann. Now, please put on the white coat and go with the orderlies into the van. We'll make sure you are well medicated for your condition and hope that you may be well enough to rejoin society. This is for your benefit, as much as it is the countries.
Full time gig at Fox News, I'll bet.
Yea run away you coward and HIDE, why is it her and S. Palin both RESIGN during a time of several 'investigations' against them.
If I had a dollar for every outrageous lie she told I'd be a millionaire.
NOt really a news story as she was likely to lose this time around and she's attempting to bow out before the loss.
Sarah Palin 2.0.
She finally figured out what Sarah figured out long ago.
Spewing Tea Party gibberish is a much better paying gig than working for the people of the USA.
As a Minnesotan, I've always been embarrassed by you and your actions. How you got elected at all distresses me.
Stephen Colbert on Bachmann's warning of safety of the HPV vaccine:
“So what I’m hearing here is that there is a disagreement in the scientific community on this issue,” Colbert joked. “On one side, you have the full weight of the medical and scientific establishment. And on the other side, you have Michele Bachmann citing studies in The New England Journal of Some Lady I Just Met.”
What a great way to start the day! She has been such an embarrassment to Minnesota.
I can hear the cheering in Minnesota all the way here in Iowa!