Top U.S. diplomat Pompeo not planning 2020 Senate run - sources

[webfact]

Top U.S. diplomat Pompeo not planning 2020 Senate run - sources

By Steve Holland

 

FILE PHOTO: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivers remarks on human rights in Iran at the State Department in Washington, U.S., December 19, 2019. REUTERS/Erin Scott

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell on Monday he does not plan to run for a U.S. Senate seat in Kansas in 2020, two people close to McConnell said.

 

Speculation has swirled for months over whether Pompeo, 56, a former Republican congressman from Kansas, would run for the Senate seat in his home state.

 

"Leader McConnell believes Secretary Pompeo is doing an incredible job as secretary of state and is exactly where the country needs him to be right now," one person said.

 

Pompeo's decision was first reported by the New York Times. Pompeo did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters.

 

Pompeo has been enjoying being the country's top diplomat and is one of President Donald Trump's closest advisers, a source said. Pompeo was instrumental in Trump's decision to launch an air strike last week that killed Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani.

 

"Pompeo is clearly choosing country over party at a key time in history," Republican strategist Scott Reed said.

 

McConnell had urged Pompeo to run for the seat to help keep the party's Senate majority after Republican Senator Pat Roberts said last year he would retire.

 

Some Republicans fear a decision by Pompeo not to run increases the likelihood of immigration hawk Kris Kobach winning the nominating primary and losing the general election to the Democratic nominee.

 

The Senate seat might also have been a good fit if Pompeo, who is believed to harbour presidential ambitions, chooses to run for the Republican nomination in 2024.

 

With the deadline for filing to run in Kansas not until June, Pompeo has time to change his mind about entering the race.

 

(Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Tom Brown and Peter Cooney)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-01-07

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[legend49]

he was told he had no hope of winning the seat.

[Redline]

Straight down from Putin 

[earlinclaifornia]

Why did he cancel his ME trip?

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/trump-properties-could-become-iranian-targets-190912364.html

[Tug]

They need a full time man baby sitter in the whitehouse 

[spidermike007]

Many of us are very thankful for this. The senate does not need more heavily compromised empty suits. 

[bendejo]

Gonna be hard to campaign when your name is front and center in the current scandals. 

It is said that his ambition preceded him, and everyone in Kansas politics knew this.  There is the possibility that Kansans are wising up due to the mess the former governor made of the state in recent years.

2024?  Let's see if he gets stricken down by the Voldemort effect.

 

 

[Somtamnication]

Of course, he knows that he cannot win after coming from this administration. 

[looking on the bright side]

The killing of the Iranian general who was on official visit to Iraq,  invited by Iraqi PM is illegal, so it is a murder. Regarding to what true and objective news says , Iranian Soleimani was on diplomat mission from Saudi Arabia bringing a message or a deal, whatever it was, to Iraqi PM. And sometime ago, he helped Americans against Talibans, the report says. President Trump was on holiday these days, not at his office, and he signed what his advisors told him- to kill Soleimani. Probably it is M.Pompeo.  It looks it is a trap set up for Trump. Hope no war, that would be horrifying.

[Eric Loh]

Things are looking bad and dim for Pompeo’s future after 2020 election.