Sen. Al Franken will resign Jan. 2 and be succeeded by Minnesota Lt. Gov. Tina Smith a day later, NBC News reported Wednesday.
Earlier this month, the Minnesota Democrat announced he would step down amid sexual misconduct accusations, but had not set a specific time to leave the Senate. Most of the Senate Democratic caucus pushed Franken to resign, but at least two of his party's senators — Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Patrick Leahy of Vermont — said recently that Franken got pushed out too quickly, according to Politico.
Days after Franken said he planned to step down, Minnesota Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton chose Smith as his successor.
Franken faced a Senate Ethics Committee investigation into multiple accusations of sexual misconduct and said he could no longer be "an effective senator" while it was ongoing. At the time, the senator said that "some of the allegations" against him "are simply not true," while he remembers others "very differently."
Democrats urged Franken to resign amid a heated special election for a Senate seat from Alabama. The Republican candidate, Roy Moore, was accused of pursuing relationships with teenage girls when he was in his 30s decades ago.
Moore, who denied the allegations, eventually lost the race to Democratic Sen.-elect Doug Jones.