Wilder announces he won’t seek re-election

Wilder, 86, was the longest-serving presiding officer of a legislative chamber in modern U.S. history until he lost his bid for another stint as speaker last year.

‘I love this state, I love the Senate,’ the Mason Democrat said in a speech from the well of the Senate chamber. ‘It’s more a part of me than anything else I’ve done.’

Wilder was Senate speaker and lieutenant governor for 36 years until he lost re-election by his colleagues to Sen. Ron Ramsey, a Blountville Republican.

Wilder first became a state senator in 1959 and was first elected speaker in 1971. As speaker, Wilder distributed key committee assignments to both Republicans and Democrats to defeat challengers for his post from both parties.

The decision to retire from office is a reversal for Wilder, who had earlier announced he would run again and lent his campaign $500,000.

‘All my life I’ve wanted to make a difference. I wanted to do what God wanted me to do, and I didn’t know exactly what that was,” Wilder said in his speech. ‘I’ve decided not to run for re-election.’

Wilder said he had aspirations beyond the Senate after he was elected speaker.

‘I wanted to be governor so bad in 1975, I could die,’ he said. But his wife Macelle, who died in 2004, opposed the idea.

‘My baby said ‘I ain’t gonna live in that house that had them wine parties,’ he said. ‘So that ended that.’

Wilder was hospitalized earlier this year with pneumonia and also spent time in the hospital last year after injuring his head in a fall at his home.

But Wilder rides a bicycle daily and still regularly flies his small airplane.

‘I’m in good shape physically,’ Wilder said earlier this year. ‘I don’t smoke, don’t drink, don’t gamble, don’t lie, don’t cheat.’

Wilder noted that Sen. Douglas Henry, D-Nashville, was the only senator who was already in office when he came to the Senate.

‘If he follows through, I’ll be the oldest rat in the barn,’ joked Henry, 81.

Supporters long cited Wilder’s light touch in controlling the 33-member Senate, letting it take a path of its own choosing. Wilder’s mantra of ‘the Senate is the Senate’ was often followed by expressions of pride for the members’ actions ‘ no matter what they might have been.

But critics labeled Wilder a crafty politician whose only real goal was to remain speaker, even if it meant helping defeat members of his own party.

Wilder built a reputation for refusing to publicly state his support ‘ or opposition ‘ to key pieces of legislation until it was a time for a vote.

Wilder was also known for his sometimes rambling and bizarre speeches, including about his philosophy on the ‘cosmos.’

But colleagues from both sides of the aisle had nothing but adoring comments for Wilder on Thursday.

‘Sir, you have been a giant,’ Sen. Joe Haynes, D-Goodlettsville, told Wilder after the speech. ‘You were the calm among the storm.’