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.
Just speculating here but I suspect it's as simple as her polling numbers showing that most of the electorate in her district has become aware of what a whack job she is and that she has become unelectable.
Adios and good luck. You'll be doing your country a big favor!!!
The second coming of ... Sarah Palin.
Thank Christ!
Ding dong the witch is gone...which ol' witch...the Bachmann witch...ding dong the wicked witch is gooonnnneee.
I thought everyone in congress was retired.
I will just add my voice to the majority here – good riddance. One less embarrassment .
What a shame.
It would be have been an easy seat to gain for the Democrats.
Hibernate forever and ever....amen
Sean Hannity better watch out! Bachman is coming and would be qualified to upseat him. Life is good.
Great. Now taxpayers get to pay her health insurance and pension for doing nothing related to public life until she dies. Not that she did before.
hopefully she'll spend more time with her "husband" helping him Pray the Gay Away. SO glad this chick is leaving politics – she is ONE DUMB BROAD.
...and comedians wept!
Guess she's going to try to cash-in on her notoriety like Sarah Palin did. Happy to see her out of congress though.
may she rest in peace.......more than I can say for what she did to this country.
Let's hope other extremist uninformed GOP front liners follow suite. It would be nice to have some civil informed problem solving in DC.
She knows the Tea Party is toast and the GOP will have to run away from it or RIP GOP.
What a relief! This woman isn't only an embarrassment to the people of Minnesota, it's embarrassing to the United States to have someone so gleefully misinformed and so often factually incorrect serve in the House of Representatives. I won't miss her for a minute, not even for comedic purposes.
Good riddance. Bachmann is an embarrassment to Minnesota and the United States as a whole. She is the epitome of the tea party...WILLFULLY IGNORANT.
Hallelujah - God is good.
We will miss her and look forward to her future contributions!
Every time she opened her mouth it was funnier and scarier than the last. I am not going to miss her, nor I imagine is anyone else with and sense.
I'm surprised she didn't say, "My husband and I have prayed over this for hours and god said to me directly that I shouldn't run."
thank god...a complete public nightmare for normal republicans...
Michelle who??????????