Mike Pompeo won't run for US Senate in 2020 -- source

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will not run for an open US Senate seat in Kansas this year, according to a person familiar with the top diplomat’s decision.

In this photo taken on December 11, 2019, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo holds a press conference at the State Department in Washington, DC. (Saul Loeb/AFP)

Pompeo met with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell yesterday in the US Capitol “where he indicated he will not be running for Senate,” a source close to McConnell tells AFP.

“Leader McConnell believes Secretary Pompeo is doing an incredible job as Secretary of State and is exactly where the country needs him to be right now,” the source adds.

McConnell, according to US media reports, has courted the 56-year-old former CIA director for the Senate over the past year, as a way to boost the likelihood of Republicans holding the seat that opened with the announced retirement of Senator Pat Roberts.

— AFP