1942-present
Mitch McConnell News: Longtime Senator Stepping Down as GOP Leader
November will mark the end of a historic 17-year run for Mitch McConnell as the top Republican in the U.S. Senate. McConnell, 82, announced February 28 during remarks on the Senate floor that he will resign from his GOP leadership position this fall. The Kentucky Republican has held the post longer than any representative in the Senate’s history.
“As I have been thinking about when I would deliver some news to the Senate, I always imagined a moment when I had total clarity and peace about the sunset of my work,” McConnell said. “A moment when I am certain I have helped preserve the ideals I so strongly believe. That day arrived today.”
According to CNN, McConnell received a standing ovation after his remarks and a handshake from current Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. An election for McConnell’s position will occur in November, with the winner assuming the role in January 2025.
Who Is Mitch McConnell?
Mitch McConnell is an American politician serving as the U.S. Senate minority leader. A Republican from Kentucky, McConnell's 17-year tenure as Senate GOP leader is the longest in history.
McConnell began his career as an elected official as judge-executive of Kentucky’s Jefferson County in 1977. Elected to the U.S. Senate as a moderate Republican in 1984, he displayed a political insight that enabled him to rise as a minority leader in 2006. McConnell gained national attention for opposing President Obama’s legislative ambitions, helping turn the tide against Democratic control of Congress. Named Senate majority leader in 2014, he infamously refused to allow Senate hearings for a new Supreme Court nominee in 2016 following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Addison Mitchell McConnell Jr.
BORN: February 20, 1942
BIRTHPLACE: Sheffield, Alabama
SPOUSES: Sherrill Redmon (1968-1980) and Elaine Chao (m. 1993)
CHILDREN: Elly, Porter, and Claire
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Pisces
Early Years and Education
Addison Mitchell McConnell Jr. was born in Sheffield, Alabama, on February 20, 1942. After contracting polio at age two, he recovered through his mother’s vigorous therapy sessions, even developing into a talented baseball player.
A new job for Addison Sr. brought the family to Louisville, Kentucky, where McConnell became student body president at duPont Manual High School. He held the same role at the University of Louisville before graduating with honors in 1964 with a B.A. in history. In 1967, he earned his J.D. from the University of Kentucky College of Law.
Early Political Career
Setting his sights on a political career, McConnell interned for Kentucky Congressman Gene Snyder and Senator John Sherman Cooper in the mid-1960s. He served as chief legislative assistant for Senator Marlow Cook after law school and later became a deputy assistant attorney general to President Gerald Ford.
In 1977, McConnell earned his first elected seat as judge-executive of Kentucky’s Jefferson County. A moderate Republican early in his career, he supported collective bargaining rights for public employees and steered federal funds toward the expansion of Jefferson Memorial Forest.
In 1984, McConnell edged out Walter D. Huddleston for a seat in the Senate, making him the only Republican in the country to defeat an incumbent Democratic senator that year and the first of his party to win a statewide race since 1968.
U.S. Senator
During his first term in the Senate, McConnell earned a spot on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and advocated for tax reform. Gaining traction after his re-election in 1990, he became known for his opposition to campaign finance reform and successfully spearheaded an effort to block legislation on that front in 1994.
Named chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 1996, McConnell continued to buck the tide at opportune moments. He sued the Federal Election Commission following the passage of the bipartisan McCain-Feingold Act in 2002, and in 2006, he opposed a constitutional amendment to ban the desecration of the American flag.
By then, the junior Kentucky senator had earned renown for his political cunning and ability to forge coalitions. He was voted party whip in 2002, and four years later, he took over as Senate minority leader.
Republican Leader and Opposition to President Obama
As the Senate’s top Republican, McConnell rejected the Democratic push for establishing a timetable to withdraw troops from Iraq. In late 2008, he threw his support behind the Troubled Asset Relief Program, signed into law by outgoing President George W. Bush.
With the 2008 election of President Obama giving Democrats control of the White House and both branches of Congress, McConnell focused on obstructing the new commander-in-chief whenever possible. Most notably, he opposed the passage of the economic stimulus package, known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and the health insurance reform package, the Affordable Care Act (also known as “Obamacare”) in 2010.
Additionally, he stood against the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and delayed approval of Obama’s judicial nominees. He rejected a host of other legislation put forth during the Obama administration. In a 2010 interview with the National Journal, he made his party's strategy explicit: “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”
While McConnell did not achieve that goal, he saw gains with the Republican takeover of the House in 2010. Two years later, despite the Democrats’ push for gun control legislation after the December 2012 Sandy Hook massacre, McConnell voted against a 2013 bill that would have expanded background checks for gun purchases.
He continued to push the Republican narrative of wasteful Democratic spending, fueling an ongoing dispute over the federal debt limit that eventually forced him into a deal to end a government shutdown in October 2013. Although his compromise angered the Tea Party faction of the GOP, McConnell survived the ensuing power struggle that brought down top House Republicans Eric Cantor and John Boehner. His re-election to the Senate capped another wave of Republican gains in 2014, giving him his long-coveted role of Senate majority leader.
Majority Leader and Supreme Court Controversy
With the votes in his favor, McConnell turned his attention to new legislation. He oversaw Senate approval of a five-year highway bill, struck deals to enact education and social security reforms, and pushed for a bill to address an opioid epidemic. Additionally, he continued his work as a senior member of the Agriculture, Appropriations, and Rules Committees.
The Senate leader infamously obstructed President Obama once again following the death of Supreme Court Justice Scalia in February 2016. With an Obama appointment expected to tip the Court in a liberal direction, McConnell announced that “The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice” and then refused to allow hearings for the nominee, Merrick Garland.
Although the move drew condemnation from both sides of the aisle, McConnell’s gambit paid off when Donald Trump was elected president in November 2016, assuring the eventual nomination and confirmation of conservative favorite Neil Gorsuch.
Trump Administration: Obamacare Repeal, Tax Reform, Wall Vote
With President Trump in office, McConnell and his fellow Republican lawmakers embarked on their long-promised effort to repeal Obamacare. After some early missteps, the House managed to pass its version of repeal legislation in May 2017. However, the Senate bill failed to generate enough traction to get over the hump. With the defections of independent-minded Republican senators like John McCain and Susan Collins, McConnell first had to delay holding a vote before suffering a rare public defeat when the revised version was rejected in July.
The failed bill fueled increased tension between McConnell and President Trump, already at odds over the direction of the Republican Party. However, McConnell got back on track by securing the passage of a sweeping Senate tax reform bill in early December. After he and House Speaker Paul Ryan reconciled their differences, the $1.5 trillion tax bill passed on December 20, 2017, giving Trump his first major legislative victory.
The GOP scored another victory when the two parties bickered over a temporary spending bill, leading to a brief government shutdown in January 2018. Democrats demanded renewed protections for “Dreamers,” the children of illegal immigrants growing up in the United States, but relented after McConnell delivered a vague promise to consider the issue.
In April 2018, the majority leader said he would like to make the temporary individual tax cuts from the 2017 bill permanent. Around that time, it was also revealed that McConnell had allegedly torpedoed legislation from the March omnibus bill that would update the congressional policy on sexual harassment over a provision that rendered members financially liable for settlements against them.
Additionally, he addressed the thorny issue of Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, with Trump reportedly fuming over the special counsel’s intrusion into other areas of his professional dealings. McConnell downplayed the importance of the bipartisan legislation recently introduced to protect special counsels and said he would not bring it to the floor for a vote.
In 2019, McConnell found himself cornered again over President Trump’s insistence on building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Following a 35-day government shutdown on the issue and a budget compromise that allocated just $1.375 billion for the wall, Trump ignored McConnell’s warnings about lukewarm Senate support and declared a national emergency in February to obtain more funding. The House subsequently passed a resolution to overturn the national emergency, and McConnell could not prevent its passage in the Senate, resulting in the first veto of the Trump presidency.
After a released summary of the completed Mueller report in March cleared Trump of colluding with Russia—though his possible obstruction of justice remained a politically charged topic—an emboldened president announced that he was taking on the repeal and replace of Obamacare yet again. This time, however, Trump heeded McConnell’s warnings that Senate Republicans had no appetite for another immediate healthcare battle, and the president said he would tackle the issue after being reelected.
That summer, the Senate majority leader suffered a fractured shoulder after falling on his patio, forcing him to continue his work from home.
Impeachment
In the fall of 2019, McConnell and his fellow senators mostly took a back seat as the country focused on President Trump's impeachment hearings in the House of Representatives. In December, the lower chamber voted almost entirely along party lines to charge the president with abuse of power and obstruction of justice. However, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to immediately relay the articles of impeachment to the Republican-controlled Senate, leaving McConnell to jostle with the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, over the trial's terms.
Beyond consenting to let arguments take place over three days instead of two, McConnell leveraged the Republican majority to his advantage after the Senate trial began in January 2020, squashing Democratic attempts to amend trial rules and call witnesses. On February 5, 2020, the Senate voted along party lines to acquit Trump on both impeachment charges, prompting the president to praise McConnell for a “fantastic job" in a celebratory speech afterward.
The following month, with the country suddenly reeling from the coronavirus outbreak, McConnell and Schumer butted heads again over the components of an emergency relief bill. On March 25, the Senate unanimously passed a $2 trillion package—an amount the majority leader called a “wartime level of investment into our nation”—which created a $500 billion lending program for businesses, cities, and states, provided four months of expanded unemployment insurance and allocated $1,200 to most American adults.
Health and 'Freezes'
During the later part of his leadership tenure, McConnell’s health has been the subject of concern after the senator experienced multiple falls and appeared to freeze while talking to reporters.
In March 2023, McConnell fell at a Washington, D.C., hotel and suffered a concussion and broken ribs. CNN reported later in July that McConnell had experienced two other falls during the year, including during a February meeting with the Finnish president in Helsinki.
Also, in July 2023, McConnell appeared to freeze mid-sentence during a news conference with reporters on Capitol Hill. He was led away to his office by an aide, who returned a few minutes later and said he was fine. A similar incident occurred a few weeks later in August when McConnell repeated a reporter’s question at an event in Kentucky and began to stare ahead without saying anything.
Wife and Personal Life
McConnell has been married to his second wife, Elaine Chao, since 1993. Chao, born in 1953 in Taiwan, became the first Asian American woman to be appointed to a Presidential cabinet when she served as secretary of labor for George W. Bush starting in 2001. Then, in November 2016, Chao was tapped by President-elect Trump for the position of transportation secretary. Upon this appointment, McConnell stated he would not recuse himself from his wife’s Senate confirmation.
McConnell has three daughters—Elly, Porter, and Claire—with his first wife, Sherrill Redmon.
A devoted Baptist, McConnell, in 2016, published a book, The Long Game, about his life and career in politics.
Net Worth
According to Celebrity Net Worth, McConnell’s net worth is estimated at around $35 million as of February 2024.
Quotes
- The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.
- I only to talk the press if it’s to my advantage.
- I’ve demonstrated, once again, that when the Congress is in gridlock and the country is at risk, I’m the guy who steps forward and tries to get us out of the ditch.
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Tyler Piccotti first joined the Biography.com staff as an Associate News Editor in February 2023, and before that worked almost eight years as a newspaper reporter and copy editor. He is a graduate of Syracuse University. When he's not writing and researching his next story, you can find him at the nearest amusement park, catching the latest movie, or cheering on his favorite sports teams.
