Sen. Blunt won’t run for reelection in 2022

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

After nearly five decades in state and US politics, Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) announced Monday morning he's not running for reelection next year.

Blunt made the decision more than a year out from the November 2022 election.

In a video posted to the senator's Twitter account, Blunt compared lessons he learned on a dairy farm to how he governs in Congress.

Watch a replay of Blunt's 3:15 p.m. news conference live in the player below.

"One of the main lessons was to always finish the work that could get done that day. You also understood that you had to use the tools and resources you had, not the ones that you wished you had," Blunt said in the tweet.

The senator also talked about advancing health and mental health research in the video.

Blunt first won office as the Greene County Clerk in 1973. Nine years later Blunt won a statewide race to become the Missouri Secretary of State.

Following that victory, Blunt ran and won election in the US House of Representatives in 1997. He went on to serve seven terms in the House and then won election in the Senate in 2010.

Blunt won reelection in 2016 against Missouri's former Democratic Secretary of State Jason Kander.

A former Missouri state senator, Scott Sifton, announced early in February that he was running as a Democrat against Blunt.