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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- Untitled
no more corn dog photo-ops? darn!
Good riddance! Don't let the door hit your rather wide backside as you leave!
I don't believe in God, yet I somehow feel compelled to thank him anyway. No one that stupid should be in charge of ANYTHING.
God bless Rep. Bachmann. A constant reminder to the mainstream media and the lying Democrat machine that the party of the so-called War Against Women is anything but that.
Right. In other words, she's going to lobby for koch industries instead of pretending to uphold the constitution.
Goodbye to another nutcase.
Despite being a total loon, she must still have some political smarts to realize her effectiveness as a Representative in the House has been seriously compromised due to the fact that she has, in fact, made her true positions and beliefs public. That, plus Marcus.
Maybe she'll go back to school and finally graduate from the seventh grade.
Her husband has convinced her to accompany him on a tour of historical American bathhouses (whatever they are...)
Sure the investigation has nothing to do with it. She's probably Palin's replacement on faux news. Good riddance you nut bag.
I guess she's not as "intellectually challenged" as I thought if she has the good sense to not seek re-election in order to spare herself the pain of defeat.
So how long will it take her to sign a deal with Fox News?
I guess that spaceship is finally coming back for her. Good riddance, dingbat.
Good riddance to the single worst American in the house. May she and her closeted gay husband enjoy the rest of their miserable, un-christian lives together far from the eye of the public.
As a Minnesotan, I can only say "Sorry, America". Good riddance, quit now.
I hope she lands a gig on comedy central. She's been one of the brightest stars in political comedy for years!
OMG! I Could not be happier! Bachmann not running almost makes me believe in God!
The sound of sanity restored is almost deafening
Michelle Bachmann, Queen Bee of the Tea Party Caucus, and her type of ultra-conservatives genuinely believe they are doing the 'Lord's Work" and continuing what the Founding Fathers intended for America, as well as "Saving it" for the other party ( hint,hint...) and are all that stands between utter and dismal collaps of America and abright, righteous future. God entrusted them with preservibng the Consttitution aginst socialists, communists, Kenyans, Muslims, gays and abortionists. She says she will continue to have abright future in America. Move oiver, Sarah! Here comes compettion for the Idiocy Crown for former politicians.
Sad commentary for our country to have put such a nutcase in congress to begin with. There needs to be an IQ test before anyone is allowed to vote.
The wicked witch is tossing in her pointy hat. It is a great day for Minnesota and America. For eight years she has wasted our time and taxpayers money.
Good bye, Bachmann: good riddance. You and Sarah Palin can play at Saviors of America to amuse the rest of us. If ever there were a couple of frauds, the two of you are it! Now if the media will just stop covcering every stupid remark you make, you may just fade from our collective memory. THAT'S what I am lookin forward to!
Good riddance .
Ding Dong, the witch is gone. Thank God for small favors. Hopefully this brainless tool will fade back into the pile of dung from which she crawled, never to return or be heard from again.
She can read a poll. She almost lost last time and her kooky nuttiness will preclude her from a 5th term.
Good riddance.