Russ Feingold Hints at Senate Bid in Final State Department Speech

Feingold could run for his former Senate seat in 2016. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call File Photo)
Feingold could run for his former Senate seat in 2016. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call File Photo)
By Alexis Levinson
Posted February 24, 2015 at 12:24pm

Former Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., hinted at a possible comeback bid in his final speech as an U.S. envoy to Africa for the State Department.  

As Feingold, who lost to GOP Sen. Ron Johnson in 2010, concluded his remarks at the U.S. Institute of Peace, he thanked, “My once, current, and I hope, future Chief of Staff Mary Irvine.”  

Feingold said Irvine “started with me on my very first day as an envoy for the State Department in July of 2013, just as she was there every day for my tenure in the U.S. Senate.”  

The Democrat lost his Senate seat in 2010 to Johnson. In 2013, he was appointed U.S. special envoy for the Great Lakes Region of Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  

He resigned from his post last week.