Earlier this year, Mitch McConnell announced that he would be stepping down as the U.S. Senate’s Republican leader. The influential Republican has often functioned as the de facto leader of Republican congressional initiatives, and has served in the capacity of Senate Republican leader position nine times. With his most recent election to the position in January of 2023, McConnell became the longest-serving Senate party leader in American history.
McConnell was first elected to the Senate in 1984, narrowly beating incumbent Democratic Senator Walter “Dee” Huddleston by a mere 5,000 votes out of 1.3 million votes cast. Since his arrival to the U.S. Senate, McConnell has carefully built the image of a political genius who knows how to get the legislation that he wants and how to halt the legislation that he does not. McConnell does not achieve this by drafting bills as a legislative work horse. In fact, he has never been the primary sponsor on a major piece of legislation that has become law. He garnered this reputation by working as a political operative behind the scenes to strike deals and build coalitions. He has served in a variety of leadership roles, previously holding the positions of Majority Whip in the 108th and 109th Congresses and chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee during the 1998 and 2000 election cycles.
One of McConnell’s most prominent political successes was his undermining of President Barack Obama’s administration. Famously, President Obama faced fierce resistance from Senator McConnell on filling vacancies in the judiciary. Under McConnell’s leadership, Republicans employed filibusters and threats of filibusters to stall or block the President’s appointments. Part of McConnell’s strategy to oppose the White House and make Obama “a one-term president,” the filibusters were extremely effective. During the final two years of his tenure Obama only managed to confirm 28.6% of his judicial nominations. According to a report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS), this was the lowest confirmation percentage since 1977.
When a Republican came to the White House with the election of President Donald Trump, the judicial floodgates opened. Once again, a new record was set in the CRS records. With McConnell’s help, President Trump confirmed more judges in his first two years than any president since the CRS started keeping records. At the conclusion of President Trump’s four-year term, he had confirmed 54 appeals judges compared to President Obama’s 55 over eight years. McConnell has flaunted his opposition to President Obama and his confirmation of multiple Supreme Court Justices. The success of these Supreme Court appointments was instrumental in the overturning of Roe v. Wade, with all three of President Trump’s picks joining the conservative majority in Dobbs v. Jackson.
However, while famous for his rigid resistance, McConnell has also displayed some bipartisanship in his recent negotiations with Senate Democrats on immigration reform and further Ukrainian war aid.
While Senator McConnell has extensive ties to the state of Kentucky, he was actually born and spent much of his early life in Alabama. However, McConnell moved to Louisville, Kentucky at the age of 13. McConnell graduated from the University of Louisville in 1964 and attained a law degree from the University of Kentucky in 1967. McConnell has continued to keep close ties with the University of Louisville, founding the McConnell Center and its McConnell Scholars program. In January, 2023, McConnell announced the university would be receiving $20 million in federal funding for cybersecurity workforce training.
One of McConnell’s challenges with constituents is doubts over his ability to keep up with the speed of Washington, D.C. At 81 years of age, McConnell is generally not regarded as a man possessing youthful vigor. Since a fall in March of last year, McConnell has shown signs of a potential medical issue, twice “freezing” while addressing members of the press. After the second incident in Covington, Kentucky, McConnell scrambled to convince constituents and Senate colleagues alike that he was still fit to serve as a member of the U.S. Senate and as the Republican Minority Leader. Despite doubts from Kentucky’s junior Senator Rand Paul, McConnell continued to serve in his leadership role.
McConnell has enjoyed a secure tenure. After winning the seat for the first time in 1984, McConnell has routinely seen impressive victories against both primary and general election challengers. Despite 53% of Kentuckians disapproving of his job performance, McConnell has won by wide margins by pointing to his lengthy Senate record as a strength rather than a weakness. His campaigns have portrayed the Minority Leader as someone capable of making tough decisions and striking unconventional deals. Finally, in his communications with his constituents, McConnell points to his wealth of political clout, which he contends has helped to better Kentucky’s position in Washington and secured it millions of dollars in federal funding.
Throughout his career, McConnell also demonstrated the power of the filibuster. Ultimately, the gridlock imposed by his use of the filibuster and the unity of Republican senators inspired the passage of 2013 procedural change that changed the requirements for cloture for debate on nominations from 60 senators to a mere simple majority. This was accomplished using the “nuclear option” which requires a senator raising a point of order to argue that a Senate rule is being violated. If this motion is upheld by the chair or forced by a majority of the Senate overruling the chair, the filibuster is ended. This use of the nuclear option frustrated McConnell and other Senate Republicans who viewed the move as a power grab only for the group to embrace the measure for their own utility in 2017.
Ultimately, the legacy of Mitch McConnell is both a source of impressive political maneuvering and frustrating political gridlock. While McConnell was often able to function as a leader for his Republican colleagues and as a potential source of compromise from Democratic opponents, the senator also represents a facet of our democracy that many Americans lament: congressional leaders working to undercut compromise and cooperation at every turn. The end of the era of McConnell also leaves an uncertain political future for the state of Kentucky. It has been under McConnell’s watch that the state has received more than $100 billion more in federal funding than taxpayers have needed to contribute. In this way, the departure of McConnell from the Senate’s highest levels should be a source of anxiety for every Kentuckian mindful of the state’s reliance on federal aid.
Louisville Political Review 