GOP Sen. Johnny Isakson (Ga.) announced Wednesday that he will step down from the Senate at the end of the year, citing health issues.
“After much prayer and consultation with my family and my doctors, I have made the very tough decision to leave the U.S. Senate at the end of this year. I have informed Georgia Governor Brian Kemp today that I will resign my Senate seat effective December 31, 2019,” Isakson said in a statement.
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Isakson’s term runs through 2022, and Kemp, under state law, is allowed to fill the vacant Senate seat.
A special election will be held to fill the remaining two years of Isakson’s term during the next regularly scheduled election, meaning Georgia voters will cast ballots for both of the state’s Senate seats in 2020, when Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) is also up for reelection.
Isakson’s decision to retire immediately sparked speculation that Democrats could try to lure Stacey Abrams, who lost the state’s 2018 gubernatorial race, to run for his seat in the special election. But a spokesman for Abrams shut the door on a new 2020 Senate bid, saying Abrams would not be a candidate.
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Isakson is the fourth Republican senator in the past year to announce that they will retire. Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) and Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), who were each up for reelection in 2020, have announced that they will leave the Senate. Democratic Sen. Tom Udall (N.M.) has also announced he will retire instead of run for reelection next year.
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GOP senator Johnny Isakson to resign https://t.co/AVJPqfYVtR pic.twitter.com/1N5vSvNtL4
— The Hill (@thehill) August 28, 2019
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