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.
Somewhere there is a bat cave full of Guano preparing for her return. Rumor has it the bats aren't too happy about that.
Hallelujah! Best news of this so far very beautiful day!
I'm a subscriber to something on FB called "Vote if you think this Turnip is smarter than Michelle Bachmann"
This woman says she is not quitting because she is worried about re-election or the investigation into her campaign?? Are we surprised to hear yet another lie leave her lips??? NOT!!!! She is a pathological liar. Good riddance.
Ding dong, the witch is dead! The real embarrassment is that this hate-and-fear-mongering functional illiterate was re-elected by her equally homophobic, ignorant constituents.
It will be interesting to see if she has value to any industry as a lobbyist: the long-term financial goal of most Congressmen.
every other word out of her mouth has been an outright lie. just wait and watch the deceiver run for office again.
Last Call, boys and girls. After this, there's no telling when the next blog about Bachmann will come along.
Thank GOD! This woman is clueless. She truly makes my skin crawl.
So long.
That's the best thing she's done for this country.
And there was much rejoicing...yay!!!
"This administration pledged itself last summer to an across-the-board, top-to-bottom cut in personal and corporate income taxes to be enacted and become effective in 1963. I am not talking about a quickie or a temporary tax cut which would be more appropriate if a recession were imminent. Nor am I talking about giving the economy a mere shot in the arm to ease some temporary complaint. The federal government's most useful role is not to rush into a program of excessive increases in public expenditures, but to expand the incentives and opportunities of private expenditures."
It was John F. Kennedy who's 96th birthday we recognize today. JFK passed across the board tax cuts to spur economic growth, and years later, Ronald Reagan did the same to incredible results!
Is this some sort of back-handed endorsement of John F. Kennedy? Far from it. But back in October radio host Rush Limbaugh asked a great question: "I wonder how many Democrats alive hearing this today had never heard it before and are having trouble believing it? JFK. There's not a Democrat alive who would make this speech today, and this speech is exactly what is needed today."
Another loon we don't need in DC.
I'd bet you $10,000 that the Republican Congressional leadership are turning carwheels over this news.
This Born Again (aka Make Pretend) Christian does nothing but make a mockery of God. She is far removed from anything that the Bible teaches. She is more like the Pharisees and Sadducees that Jesus spoke out against. The people that had Jesus killed.
The average IQ of Congress just increased by five points.
Why should she ?? She already has lifetime salary and benefits. No need to stay around when Obama is destroying the country.
Good riddance. Now if we can just get rid of the rest of the Tea Party infestation.
Really does anyone care
GOP just got stronger.
She'll find another way to torture the more sane people who didn't vote for her. Getting rid of her is like getting rid of a bad case of the clap without penicillin.
And yet, no renunciation of all the ""gubmint" retirement money and benefits she will collect for the rest of her life?
A true, tea-baggin' "patriot" indeed!
I find it insulting and demeaning to the intelligent and capable women in America that the media focus is seemingly always drawn to the dumb and pretty women like Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin. Am I the only one who has noticed this?
Now she can enter the House of Irrelevance along with Caribou Barbie.. Both will be soon forgotten as jokes with people wondering just how they were elected for any office in the first place. All that is wrong with the republican party.
The only thing that surprises me is that she's not stepping down in the middle of her term, like some other mindless twit has done before her. She absolutely knows that she has no care whatsoever for actually governing, or pushing this country in a better direction through dialogue and the great art of compromise, it's so much easier to throw bricks from the outside, plus it actually pays better, and you'd better know that that is the ONLY reason she's not going to run again...because she's running to the money!!! Turns out ignorant twits happily pay her to speak their brand of ignorance.