Kay Bailey Hutchison announces she will not run for re-election in 2012

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.) announced that she will not run in 2012 for a fourth term in the U.S. Senate in a letter to her supporters Thursday. “I am announcing today that I will not be a candidate for re-election in 2012,” she wrote to supporters. “That should give the people of Texas ample time to consider who my successor will be.”

A Politico article last week quoting several Texas politicos suggested that she would run. However, given her votes for the Troubled Asset Relief Program and against the earmarks moratorium (which she later voted for), she may have faced a tea party challenger.

Among the many names that could seek Hutchison’s seat include Texas Railroad Commission members Elizabeth Ames Jones (R) and Michael Williams (R), former Secretary of State of Texas Roger Williams (R), former state solicitor general Ted Cruz (R), state Sen. Florence Shapiro (R) and former Democratic Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts John Sharp.