Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the current president pro tempore of the Senate and a prominent Democratic leader, has announced that he will retire in 2022, joining a growing list of Democratic retirees in the thinly-held House and Senate.
Leahy is currently the Senate’s most senior member, having first been elected in 1974 as a so-called “Watergate Baby” following the revelations surrounding the Watergate scandal under President Richard Nixon. The revelations set off a chain of Republican losses in the 1974 midterms, allowing Leahy to begin his 48-year term in office.
Announcing his retirement in a speech on the floor of the Vermont State House, Leahy reflected on his original impetus to join the U.S. Senate.
