WASHINGTON — Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee and one of the last bridges to bipartisanship in the Senate, announced on Monday that he will not seek re-election in 2020. In a statement, Mr. Alexander, 78, a senator since 2003 and a former Tennessee governor, said that “now it is time for someone else to have that privilege.”Mr. Alexander, a two-time presidential candidate and former secretary of education, is known for his strong relationships with Democrats and Republicans and his efforts to forge bipartisan legislative deals, a fading art in a Senate increasingly driven by partisanship and polarization. His decision to leave is the latest evidence that Washington has become a less attractive place for legislators interested in steering a middle course on seemingly intractable issues such as education and health care. “We have got a fractured country,” Mr. Alexander said last year as he tried to broker a bipartisan plan to stabilize the Affordable Care Act. “This is the most important institution for creating a consensus on tough issues like health care, like civil rights, like elementary and secondary education.”

Source: New York Times December 17, 2018 18:19 UTC