In this image from video, Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, speaks Jan. 6 as the Senate reconvenes to debate the objection to confirm the Electoral College Vote from Arizona. Portman announced this morning that he will not run for re-election. (Senate Television via AP)

Citing “partisan gridlock,” U.S. Sen. Rob Portman said today that he won’t seek re-election when his term is up next year.

Portman, R-Terrace Park, said, “I feel fortunate to have been entrusted by the people of Ohio to represent them in the U.S. Senate. Today, I am announcing that I have made a decision not to run again in 2022. This doesn’t mean I’m leaving now. I still have two more years in my term and I intend to use that time to get a lot done.”

Portman is serving his second six-year term in the Senate. He’s served 30 years in Washington, D.C., including 12 as a House member, eight in the executive branch and the last 10 in the U.S. Senate.

“This is a tough time to be in public service,” he said. “For many of the issues I am most passionate about, I will continue to make a difference outside of the Senate beyond 2022.”

Portman’s announcement ending a career in federal government that spans more than three decades comes the same day the U.S. Senate is receiving the House impeachment article against former Republican President Donald Trump. While some Republican senators have criticized going ahead with the trial next month with Trump out of office, Portman said last week he would listen to both sides before making a decision on how to vote.

“We live in an increasingly polarized country where members of both parties are being pushed further to the right and further to the left, and that means too few people who are actively looking to find common ground. This is not a new phenomenon, of course, but a problem that has gotten worse over the past few decades,” Portman said in his remarks. “This is a tough time to be in public service.”

He said that Trump did not help the polarization.

Portman, who turned 65 last month, is among establishment Republicans who clearly struggled with supporting Trump. Once dubbed “The Loyal Soldier” in a front-page profile story in his hometown Cincinnati Enquirer, Portman usually supported Trump in carefully worded statements. After Trump called the presidential election rigged, Portman said Trump had a right to a probe of any irregularities.

But in the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Portman said Trump needed to go on national TV to address his supporters and tell them to refrain from violence.

“Both in his words before the attack on the Capitol and in his actions afterward, President Trump bears some responsibility for what happened,” Portman said.

Portman was elected handily twice to the U.S. Senate, but was considered likely to face primary opposition in 2022.

Portman, who served in the presidential administrations of both Bushes, was under consideration by both John McCain and Mitt Romney to be their running mates in their respective presidential bids. Portman also helped them and other GOP presidential candidates practice for debates by playing their Democratic rival.

He was elected to Congress from southern Ohio in a 1993 special election and won six more elections before being tapped by President George W. Bush to serve as U.S. trade representative in 2005. He traveled the globe, negotiating dozens of trade agreements. Bush then nominated him to be his White House budget director in 2006.

Portman stepped down in 2007, then returned to politics in 2010 with a successful U.S. Senate run, and won again in 2016, both times by landslide margins in a traditional swing state.

Generally voting with his party, Portman broke ranks in 2013 to announce support for same-sex marriage. He said their son Will had earlier come out as gay to him and his wife, Jane. They have three children.