Washington:
Republican congresswoman and ex-presidential candidate Michele Bachmann said Wednesday that she will not seek re-election in the House of Representatives.
The conservative tea party favorite from Minnesota said in a video on her website that her decision not to run in 2014 had nothing to do with concerns about being re-elected. She narrowly won a fourth term in 2012 over Democrat Jim Graves, a hotel magnate who is running again in 2014.
Bachmann also said recent inquiries into her 2012 presidential campaign did not affect her decision.
In January, a former Bachmann aide filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission. The aide claimed Bachmann made improper payments to an Iowa politician who was the state chairman of her 2012 presidential campaign.
Bachmann, a vocal opponent of President Barack Obama, had given few clues she was considering leaving Congress. Her fundraising operation was churning out the regular pitches for the small-dollar donations that Bachmann corralled so well over the years, and she had an ad running on television talking about her role in opposing Obama's landmark health law.
Without the polarizing Bachmann on the ticket, Republicans could have an easier time holding a district that leans more heavily in their direction than any other in Minnesota, a Democrat-leaning state.
Bachmann won the seat in 2006 on the strength of a social and fiscal conservative coalition. She catapulted onto the national scene with edgy comments and frequent cable television appearances.
In Washington, she turned to fiscal issues, attacking Democrats and Obama for government bailouts and the health care overhaul. Even in her early years in Congress, Bachmann frequently took those views to right-leaning cable talk programs, cultivating her national image even as she built a formidable fundraising base with like-minded viewers around the U.S.
Her profile shot up even more with the rise of the limited-government tea party, whose agenda she heartily championed in Congress long before other Republicans saw the movement's political potential. She tried to harness the tea party energy with her presidential campaign in 2012.
But her penchant for provocative rhetoric sometimes backfired. She was hammered in 2008 for saying Obama might have "anti-American views," a statement that prompted a rare retreat by Bachmann and made her race that year closer than it would have been. She was also criticized by her fellow Republicans last July for making unsubstantiated allegations that an aide to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had family ties to Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood.
The White House bid got off to a promising start, with a win in an early test vote in Iowa. But Bachmann quickly faded and finished last when the real voting started in Iowa's leadoff nominating caucuses, a result that caused her to drop out. Saddled with debt, Bachmann opted to campaign again for her seat and squeaked through.
But the failed presidential campaign continued to dog her. Allegations of improper payments prompted ethics inquiries. Bachmann also faced a lawsuit from a former aide that alleged someone on the congresswoman's team stole a private e-mail list of home-school supporters for use in the campaign. That case is pending.
Bachmann has been mentioned as a potential challenger to first-term Democratic Sen. Al Franken, but she has given little indication that she would take that step.
As for her plans beyond Congress, Bachmann said, "There is no future option or opportunity, be it directly in the political arena or otherwise, that I won't be giving serious consideration if it can help save and protect our great nation."