Mitch McConnell

• Born: February 20, 1942
• Place of Birth: Sheffield, AL

Often considered the father of the modern Republican Party in Kentucky, Mitch McConnell rose to become one of the most influential figures in US politics in the early twenty-first century. First elected to the US Senate in 1984, he was unanimously elected Senate Republican Whip in November 2002 and became his party's Senate leader in 2007, when Republicans were in the minority. McConnell became the Senate majority leader in 2015. He won reelection to the Senate for a seventh term in 2020, but returned to minority leader status as the Democrats regained control of the Senate. In January 2023, McConnell became the longest-serving Senate party leader in US history and Kentucky's longest serving senator. He announced his decision to step down from Senate leadership in February 2024, amid waning support among some of his Republican colleagues and increasing health concerns.

Early Life

Mitch McConnell was born on February 20, 1942, in Sheffield, Louisiana. He overcame polio in his childhood, which required difficult treatment for several years. At the age of thirteen, McConnell's family relocated to Louisville, Kentucky, where he displayed an early affinity for politics when he was elected his high school's student body president and Kentucky's longest serving senator.

At the University of Louisville College of Arts and Sciences, McConnell once again became student body president, and received his undergraduate degree in 1964. He then enrolled at the University of Kentucky College of Law, where he continued his amateur political career as president of the Student Bar Association.

Political Career

Earning his law degree in 1967, McConnell subsequently became an intern for Senator John Sherman Cooper, and worked as chief legislative assistant to Senator Marlow Cook in the 1960s. His hard work earned him a position as deputy assistant attorney general under President Gerald Ford.

In 1984, McConnell ran against Democrat incumbent Dee Huddleston for the US Senate, and won by a margin of only 5,000 votes. McConnell was sworn in on January 3, 1985, the first Kentucky Republican to reach the Senate since 1968. In his early career, McConnell served as a member of the Senate Rules Committee, Agriculture and Appropriations Committees, and Judiciary Committee. In addition, he would become chair of the Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee.

McConnell won reelection in 1990 and 1996. In 1996 he was also elected chair of the Republican Senate Campaign Committee, after three attempts. As chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee for the 1998 and 2000 elections, his leadership contributed to the persistence of the Republican majority in the Senate.

McConnell was again reelected to the Senate in 2002. He won with 64 percent of the vote, beating Lois Combs Weinberg (daughter of former Governor Bert Combs). This set a record as the largest margin of victory for a Republican in Kentucky history (breaking the record held by Senator John Sherman Cooper), earned him the nickname "Landslide McConnell." On November 12, 2002, McConnell became Republican Majority Whip, second only to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee in the party hierarchy.

In 2006, when the Republicans lost control of the Senate, they elected McConnell as minority leader. Taking his place as head of the Senate Republican Conference in 2007, he cemented his place as one of the most powerful politicians in the country.

McConnell defeated Democratic Party challenger Bruce Lunsford in his 2008 reelection bid. In 2009 he faced allegations of corruption in a report released by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), but nothing ultimately came of the allegations. He was reelected again in 2014. Maintaining his party leadership, he subsequently became the Senate majority leader as the Republicans took control of the Senate.

Despite some initial speculation that he might be vulnerable in the 2020 election cycle, McConnell easily won reelection once again that year. However, following a runoff Senate race in Georgia, the Democrats regained control of the Senate. McConnell's stint as Senate majority leader ended in January 2021, but he officially began another term as minority leader. In November 2022, he won a secret-ballot leadership election, allowing him to continue to lead Republicans in the Senate.

Political Agenda

Early in his political career McConnell was considered relatively moderate, but over the years he increasingly developed a reputation as a staunch conservative. Throughout his record-setting tenure as the Senate Republican leader he advanced his party's platform while heavily opposing most Democratic Party policies.

One McConnell's signature issues during his rise to prominence in the early twenty-first century was opposition to campaign finance reform. He was a leading critic of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA, also widely known as the McCain-Feingold Act), which set limits on unregulated contributions by individuals, corporations, and unions to national political parties, and greatly limited the airing of advertisements placed by private interests to the last two months of a political campaign. With backing from diverse interest groups such as the National Rifle Association, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Chamber of Commerce, the National Right to Life Committee, the Christian Coalition, and the American Civil Liberties Union, among others, McConnell argued that the bill infringed on free speech and filed a lawsuit against it. McConnell's critics suggested his stance was hypocritical, citing his support of the Communications Decency Act of 1995, which sought to eliminate "obscenity" on the internet, and his 1993 vote to eliminate National Endowment for the Arts funding for controversial artists. The case McConnell v. the Federal Election Commission reached the Supreme Court, which in 2003 upheld the constitutionality of the BCRA. However, McConnell's advocacy helped inform the later Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010), which controversially undermined part of the BCRA on free speech grounds and allowed mostly unrestricted political spending by corporations. Many political analysts would find that Citizens United substantially benefited the Republican Party in subsequent elections.

Early in his career McConnell demonstrated his conservative Republican loyalties in numerous ways. For example, he defended Senator Trent Lott for making racially insensitive remarks in 2002, steadfastly supported Kentucky tobacco growers, advocated product and malpractice liability reform, sponsored a pornography victims act, and opposed term limits. He also led the Senate Ethics Committee investigation of sexual harassment accusations against Republican Senator Bob Packwood.

After becoming Senate minority leader in 2007, McConnell led Republican opposition to the administration of President Barack Obama (2009–17). He fought against signature Obama policies such as health care reform. He became especially known for using the tactic known as the filibuster, an attempt to delay voting on an issue by speaking for the entire Senate session. He and fellow Republicans often used the filibuster to block Democrats' legislative agenda and judicial appointments. In 2012 McConnell even filibustered one of his own bills, a debt ceiling measure that had been introduced in an attempt to divide Democrats but ended up backfiring. This consistent political obstruction helped lead Democrats to vote in 2013 to eliminate the filibuster for presidential nominations to positions other than the Supreme Court.

McConnell's political power increased after he became Senate majority leader in 2015, and he continued his sharply partisan approach. One of his most significant obstructionist moves came in 2016, when he blocked President Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. At that time, McConnell made a statement that the American people deserved to have a vote on the new Supreme Court Justice and that the seat should not be filled until the winner of the 2016 presidential election was in office. This paid off for Republicans after Donald Trump won the election and was subsequently able to install conservative judge Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court instead. After removing the ability to filibuster Supreme Court nominees in 2017, McConnell helped confirm another Trump nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, in 2018. McConnell then completely reversed his stance on Supreme Court appointments in an election year following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2020, stating that this time the open seat should be filled as quickly as possible by a Trump nominee. He supported Amy Coney Barrett as the most suitable candidate and played a major role in advancing her Senate confirmation. Although McConnell's political maneuvering was criticized as blatantly hypocritical, it helped give conservatives a strong majority on the Supreme Court, which many viewed as a signature accomplishment. Meanwhile, he also worked to install conservative judges in numerous lower court positions as well.

Aside from his role in shaping the Supreme Court, McConnell's stint as Senate majority leader was largely defined by his relationship with the Trump administration (2017–21). In many ways McConnell represented the establishment wing of the Republican Party, while Trump represented a new, unpredictable, and highly controversial faction. Nevertheless, McConnell faithfully supported most of Trump's policies. One of the most notable legislative achievements in this period was a major tax reform bill passed in 2017. McConnell also marshalled Republican support for Trump after the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives impeached the president in late 2019. During the impeachment trial in the Senate in early 2020, McConnell blocked a call for witnesses and joined all but one fellow Republican Senators in voting to acquit. As the COVID-19 pandemic broke out later that year, McConnell oversaw the Senate's passage of historic relief programs that went on to be approved by Trump.

McConnell's cooperation with Trump became increasingly strained, however, after the 2020 presidential election. After Democrat Joe Biden was declared the winner, Trump initially refused to concede and made baseless claims of voter fraud. At first McConnell did little to counter this false narrative, and even waited over a month before officially acknowledging Biden's victory himself. Yet as Trump and his allies increasingly made serious efforts to overturn the election results, McConnell sought to maintain a normal transition of power. He encouraged fellow Republican senators to certify the Electoral College vote in early January 2021, arguing that constitutional democratic process needed to be respected and preserved. After the certification proceedings were temporarily interrupted when a group of Trump supporters stormed and broke into the Capitol building on January 6, McConnell joined in the widespread condemnation of the violent act and was one of several Republicans to suggest Trump bore some responsibility for the attack. Still, after the House of Representatives impeached Trump a second time later that month, charging him with inciting insurrection, McConnell (now as minority leader) ultimately voted alongside most other Republicans to acquit. He argued that the impeachment was unconstitutional because Trump was no longer in office, though he reiterated his belief that Trump did hold some responsibility for the Capitol assault.

As Senate minority leader again, McConnell continued to oppose many Democratic policies. For example, in March 2021 he voted with every other Republican in the House and Senate against an additional $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill that was ultimately signed into law. However, he did occasionally work with the Biden administration on bipartisan efforts. Notably, he supported measures to raise the debt ceiling and avoid government shutdown despite opposition from some within his party. In February 2024, McConnell announced he would step down from his leadership position that November, making an almost eighteen-year run as his party's leader in the Senate.

Personal Information

McConnell was married to Sherrill Redmon from 1968 to 1980. They had three daughters together: Elly, Claire, and Porter. In 1993 McConnell married business executive and government official Elaine L. Chao. Previously chair of the Federal Maritime Commission, deputy US secretary of transportation, and director of the Peace Corps, Chao was president and chief executive officer of the United Way from 1993 to 1996. She would later serve as US secretary of labor under President George W. Bush (2001–09) and US secretary of transportation under President Trump (2017–21). The couple shared substantial personal wealth, with McConnell often considered one of the richest US senators by the 2010s.

During his political career McConnell faced several health issues. In 2003 he underwent heart surgery for blocked arteries, and in 2019 he injured his shoulder after falling at his home. In 2020 he appeared in public with apparent large bruises on his hands and face, but provided no explanation. Several incidents in 2023 attracted media attention, including scrutiny about his ability to serve. That March he fell and sustained a concussion, keeping him out of the Senate for several weeks. In July he temporarily froze mid-speech during a news conference, and in August he again froze in the middle of remarks, triggering much speculation as to the cause. McConnell claimed he was physically and mentally fit to serve but provided little detail about his condition.

Bibliography

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Kapur, Sahil, et al. "Mitch McConnell Will Step Down as Republican Leader at the End of the Year." NBC News, 28 Feb. 2024, www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/sen-mitch-mcconnell-will-step-republican-leader-term-rcna99337. Accessed 6 Mar. 2024.

Mayer, Jane. "How Mitch McConnell Became Trump's Enabler-in-Chief." The New Yorker, 20 Apr. 2020, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/04/20/how-mitch-mcconnell-became-trumps-enabler-in-chief. Accessed 26 Apr. 2023.

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Segers, Grace. "McConnell Rejects GOP Challenge to Election Results in Blistering Senate Speech." CBS News, 7 Jan. 2021, www.cbsnews.com/news/mcconnell-rejects-gop-challenge-to-electoral-college-results. Accessed 26 Apr. 2023.

Zengerle, Jason. "Get Mitch." Politico, Nov. 2013, www.politico.com/magazine/story/2013/11/get-mitch-mcconnell-099376. Accessed 26 Apr. 2023.