WATCH: Rep. Michele Bachmann announces her retirement

The Minnesota Tea Party stalwart takes to YouTube to explain, sort of, why she's not running again in 2014

Michele Bachmann
(Image credit: YouTube)

On Monday, Politico speculated that Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), the "bomb-throwing conservative and onetime Republican presidential candidate," faced an "existential threat in 2014." Bachmann "may be the congresswoman with nine lives," said Politico's Alex Isenstadt, but between "a swirl of investigations into her campaign finances" and a looming rematch with hotelier Jim Graves, a Democrat who almost unseated her in 2012 — and who is already beating her in some polls — her luck may have run out.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.