Michele Bachmann rules out Senate run
(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(KMSP) - Michele Bachman won't be running in this year's special U.S. Senate election in Minnesota after all.
She confirmed her intentions in an interview with radio host Jan Markel Saturday, saying she didn't have a "sense from the Lord" that it was his will for her to run for the seat, which was vacated by Al Franken following several allegations of sexual misconduct late last year.
"It wasn't a big desire of mine whether I would run or wouldn't run," she said during the wide-ranging conversation on Markel's show, "Olive Tree Ministries." "I had absolutely no sense from the Lord that I was supposed to run this time."
Bachmann told conservative televangelist Jim Bakker on his television show in December that she was considering a run for Franken's seat, ultimately hoping to bring "biblical principles" back to the U.S. Senate.
"The question is: 'Should it be me? Should it be now?'" she said at the time.
Bachmann became a controversial figure both in Minnesota and across the country with staunch criticisms of President Obama, as well as several high-profile statements later determined to be false--including assertions that a vaccine for HPV caused developmental disabilities--and her husband's involvement in a gay conversion therapy clinic.
Democrats spent millions in an attempt to unseat her in Minnesota's sixth district, a traditional conservative stronghold that includes St. Cloud and several northern Twin Cities metro suburbs. Her political career ultimately culminated in an unsuccessful run for president in 2012.