U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, who has been considering a run for president in 2024, will not seek higher office in the next election cycle, according to reports on Sunday.
A source close to the senator confirmed to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Sunday that the Dardanelle Republican will not run for president in 2024. Politico first broke the story.
A leading factor behind Cotton’s decision was his two sons, who are 5 and 7. Both were born after Cotton joined the Senate in January 2015. Cotton served in the House of Representatives for one term before defeating U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., in the 2014 election.
Cotton will not be up for reelection to the Senate until November 2026.
Cotton has spent recent weeks trying to put himself in front of more people, especially Republicans. The senator released a book last Tuesday criticizing President Joe Biden and Democratic presidencies over their foreign policy decisions, arguing that Biden “often has blamed America for the world’s problems, contending that we needed to retreat from the world and accommodate our enemies.”
“When [Biden] could bring himself to employ American power, he usually has done so in half-hearted fashion and typically on behalf of abstract ideals, not to defend our core interests,” Cotton said in “Only the Strong: Reversing the Left’s Plot to Sabotage American Power.”
Cotton joined Republican Senate candidates in recent days to stump on their behalf ahead of the midterm elections. Cotton campaigned alongside Washington state’s Tiffany Smiley, Adam Laxalt of Nevada and Blake Masters of Arizona over the weekend. All three candidates face Republican incumbents in Tuesday’s elections, in which Republicans are looking to take control of the Democrat-controlled Congress.
Cotton also has made multiple trips to Republican battleground states following the 2020 presidential election, including Iowa and New Hampshire. The Iowa caucuses — in which voters across the state meet to discuss candidates — mark the start of the presidential primary contests, and the New Hampshire primaries are the first primary elections in the nation.
Republican presidential candidates are expected to announce their campaigns after Tuesday’s midterm elections.
Former President Donald Trump, who lost to Biden in 2020, is expected to announce his bid for office. Trump has continued holding rallies and endorsing Republicans in contests across the nation. He also has used events to go after possible opponents; he criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over the weekend as DeSantis seeks a second term in office and builds a national profile.
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has also been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate, but he has said an announcement will not be made until after Tuesday’s elections. Hutchinson, who is ending his second term in office, has stated that he would not support a Trump 2024 bid.
Cotton was a vocal supporter of the Trump administration, and Trump had reportedly considered Cotton for a seat on the Supreme Court before Cotton removed his name from consideration.