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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One less nut case. That's good!
"Sha-na-na-na, Hey-hey-hey, Good bye"
Saddest day of my life. We have lost a super-intelligent, charismatic, articulate, presidential, historian, foreign policy expert, etc. etc. etc. person in the Congress. We all wish that she is preparing for the 2016 Presidential Election to save our country. The only other person comes close to her qualifications is Sarah Palin.
Minnesota has been spared!
YAY! Now if Eric Cantor and a few others will follow suit, we'll all be better off.
With no immediate scandal or prospects for a dead-on-arrival reelection bid, I can only assume she's cashing in like Palin. All aboard the wingnut gravytrain
Like Pallin, this "intellectual" realizes that there is a lot more money to be made outside of politics. Maybe she and her husband have found the gayness cure! Or maybe she could team-up with old Sarah and write a new textbook for English grammar.
Good riddance. She's simply a hate-filled, ignorant human being. She won't be missed. Sadly, I have a feeling she'll be like Sarah Palin, who also holds no office, but can't keep her ignorance to herself.
Thank goodness that psychopath won't be back.
Good riddance lunatic!
I can assure you that she would not be missed. Can any one name one piece of legislation that she was responsible for? She is nothing more than an empty wagon. I really think thank she realizes that she would not win during the next election because people are sick of her.
Good riddance!
And in other news, nobody cares about Michelle Bachmann anymore.
God works in mysterious ways! Thank you Lord!
She should join Sarah on Palin's front porch keeping the Stink Eye on Russia. Bachman's 15 seconds are way past over and done ... so just disappear, will ya?
Thank God
OMG, she's going to travel around with Palin...........
I've always said that if you believe in something thats good and you focus your mind towards that end, it will come to pass. This is one of the many good things that the Obama Presidency has brought to our nation. They cannot stand against him and the forces of good. Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, Christine O'Donnald, and Herman Cane (Mr 999). Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Who's next? Good will always triumph over evil.
I liked her initially, as a fellow Christian, and on the issues. but during the debates, it became obvious she is quite the ditz. No thank you. On the other hand, Kelly Ayotte, for the most part, makes sense. As do Bobby Jindal and Wayne Winsley.
Probably quitting so she can get Obama care.
Too bad, we will miss a lot of jokes and fun about her.
Good. One less tea party member.
Good! People like Michelle Bachmann do not belong in public office, because of their views on same-sex marriage and women's rights, as well as other issues. The United States will be so much better off with people like her out of office. Now if we could just get all of the others like her to follow suit.
Someone just got a big offer from a lobbying group
Great news!!!