Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (Nevada) has announced that he won’t seek reelection in 2016, ending a three-decade-long career that made him one of the most powerful Democrats in the country.

Reid made the announcement via a YouTube video, where he is seen wearing special glasses due to an eye injury he suffered months ago — an eye injury he now says contributed to his decision, according to an ABC News report.

The accident caused him and his wife, Landra, to have some down time to ponder and think about things, he said in the video, and because he feels a need to put the needs of the country and of Nevada above himself, he made the decision to step aside.

Reid has been the top Democrat in the Senate for the past eight years, acting as the majority leader until the Republicans took back the Senate in this most recent election, when he became relegated to the party’s minority leader.

Now, Democrats will fight for the top spot with Reid’s departure, and one of them will have a leg up thanks to Reid’s endorsement: Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). Reid believe Schumer has earned it, although he acknowledged it’s up to the caucus, Reid’s spokesman said according to the report.

Reid first joined the Senate all the way back in 1987, and is a Mormon. Prior to that, he served two terms as a member of the House, and he spent four years as Nevada’s lieutenant governor. Way back when he was attending Georgetown University Law School, he worked as an officer for the Capitol Police.

Schumer has served in the Senate since 1998, and has enjoyed wide voter support since his double-digit defeat of a Republican incumbent in his first campaign, winning in landslides in both 2004 and 2010. Has has risen to become one of the most influential voices in the Democratic party.