BREAKING: Senator Orrin Hatch (Finally!) To Retire

By Andrea Ruth | 2:33 PM on January 02, 2018

The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of RedState.com.

The Senate’s longest-serving Republican member, Orrin Hatch (Utah), announced his retirement Tuesday. Hatch, 83, has been in the U.S. Senate since 1977.

Hatch, who had recently said he wasn’t ready to leave yet, clearly has had a change of heart. We wish him well, but it is long past time Hatch left.

BREAKING: Sen. Orrin Hatch will retire after this term https://t.co/DPsITPvMlG pic.twitter.com/KCyAQn3FzJ

— Axios (@axios) January 2, 2018

The question now is, who will run for Hatch’s seat? Mitt Romney is currently seen as the heir apparent and has been looking to run. If Romney decides to run in Utah, he will be a shoe in.

“It would be difficult to defeat Mitt Romney if he were running here,” said David Hansen, a longtime Utah Republican strategist and chairman of Mr. Hatch’s political organization.

Whether or not that’s an improvement over Hatch remains to be seen.