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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Miracles do happen!!!!
Mrs. Bachman, you should have done this about seven years ago. You are neither qualified nor do you have the common sense to represent public office. Please stay move to Thailand or someplace far far away and do not come back.
This nasty right wing harridan won't be missed anywhere. Good riddance.
............Der Derp derder derpderp..........Yes, Congresswoman Bachmann,....you ARE the prettiest in the land....
She is no different than the rest of the self serving crooks in our government! She should have done this years ago.
Gooooood Riddance!!!
Bachmann is exactly what is wrong with Washington. Fanatical partisans who cannot even pass the common sense test.
Party time!
Nothing to do with the ethics investigation...yeah ok. Don't care..just go. Give that seat to someone with a brain.
She's going to finally take a job she is actually qualified for.....come to think of it I don't know of a job she is qualified to do.
One less extreme citizen in office... now if she could talk Nancy Pelosi and the other extremists to bail it could be a watershed day for our republic...
Representative Betty McCollum has been representing Minnesota's 4th district since 2001. That is 4 years longer then Representative Bachmann.
She makes Mark Dayton our current governor (who has speech issues and talks like a second grader) look like a genuis
One less Tea Party idiot in Congress. She knows she would not be reelected so she goes on stage as usual. I'm sure there is a future for her at Fox News. Perhaps she and Sarah Palin could co-host a show. Oh, I forgot, Sarah Palin already lost her job at Fox. Well, they just hired Allen West, the FL mouth. They would make a good couple on Fox.
She will be cashing in somewhere for sure! I am sure FOX News will hire her. Trust me, we have not seen the last of the Mom from Carrie. Frightening!
I thought she would look to nail Obama on covering up Benghazi...Nixon x 5
Ding Dong The witch is dead
Whatever she does, I hope it involves corn dogs or similarly shaped objects.
It's not her fault she's an ignorant and insane puppet. I blame the people who put her there. How can they even face the voting booth again?
Like Palin, she put in her dues and is getting out for all the money she has earned from her corporate handlers.
Don't go away mad, just go away.
Yeah she totally didn't quit because she's a corrupt right wing nut. Nope no corruption here. Just focus on the President and all that stuff. Don't look into what she's being investigated for. Nope! No need since she said it had nothing to do with her quiting so why do any other reporting on it? Plus the president has a lot on stuff going on that needs to be looked at. Certainly no right wing bias at CNN! She says she's inoccent so she must be since she's a Reupublican and they don't lie. Please just keep hounding the president on a bunch of make believe scandals that don't matter. Thanks!
God works in mysterious ways...Good ridden!
Jumping on the Palin "make me a multi-millionaire" train no doubt.
Is there anyone out there from Minnesota that voted for her the first time, and re elected her? Please tell us how and why?
National Guard is looking for a few good women.