Mitch McConnell

Mitch McConnell
Official portrait, 2016
Senate Minority Leader
Assumed office
January 20, 2021
WhipJohn Thune
Preceded byChuck Schumer
In office
January 3, 2007 – January 3, 2015
WhipTrent Lott
Jon Kyl
John Cornyn
Preceded byHarry Reid
Succeeded byHarry Reid
Senate Majority Leader
In office
January 3, 2015 – January 20, 2021
WhipJohn Cornyn
John Thune
Preceded byHarry Reid
Succeeded byChuck Schumer
Leader of the Senate Republican Conference
Assumed office
January 3, 2007
Preceded byBill Frist
Senate Majority Whip
In office
January 3, 2003 – January 3, 2007
LeaderBill Frist
Preceded byHarry Reid
Succeeded byDick Durbin
Chair of the Senate Rules Committee
In office
January 20, 2001 – June 6, 2001
Preceded byChris Dodd
Succeeded byChris Dodd
In office
January 3, 1999 – January 3, 2001
Preceded byJohn Warner
Succeeded byChris Dodd
United States Senator
from Kentucky
Assumed office
January 3, 1985
Serving with Rand Paul
Preceded byWalter Dee Huddleston
Judge/Executive of Jefferson County
In office
December 1, 1977 – December 21, 1984
Preceded byTodd Hollenbach III
Succeeded byBremer Ehrler
United States Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legislative Affairs
Acting
February 1, 1975 – June 27, 1975
PresidentGerald Ford
Preceded byVincent Rakestraw
Succeeded byMichael Uhlmann
Personal details
Born
Addison Mitchell McConnell III

(1942-02-20) February 20, 1942 (age 82)
Sheffield, Alabama, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
Spouses
Sherrill Redmon
(m. 1968; div. 1980)
(m. 1993)
Children3
Residence(s)Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.
Education
Signature
WebsiteSenate website
Military service
AllegianceUnited States
Branch/serviceUnited States Army
Years of serviceJuly 9, 1967 to August 15, 1967 (37 days) (medical separation)
UnitUnited States Army Reserve

Addison Mitchell McConnell III[1] (/məˈkɒnəl/ mə-KON-əl; born February 20, 1942) is an American politician and retired attorney who has served as Senate Minority Leader since 2021 and the senior United States senator from Kentucky since 1985, the longest serving senator in his state's history. He previously served as minority leader from 2007 to 2015, majority leader from 2015 to 2021 and was majority whip from 2003 to 2007. McConnell has been the leader of the Senate Republican Conference since 2007, making him the longest serving Senate party leader in U.S. history.

McConnell holds conservative political positions, although he was known as a pragmatist and a moderate Republican early in his political career. He led opposition to stricter campaign finance laws, culminating in the U.S. Supreme Court ruling Citizens United v. FEC that partially overturned the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (McCain-Feingold) in 2010. McConnell worked to withhold Republican support for major presidential initiatives during the Obama administration, having made frequent use of the filibuster, and blocked many of President Obama's judicial nominees, including Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland.

During the Trump administration, the Senate Republican majority under his leadership passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act in 2018, the First Step Act, the Great American Outdoors Act, and confirmed a record number of federal appeals court judges during a president's first two years. McConnell invoked the nuclear option to eliminate the 60-vote requirement to end a filibuster for Supreme Court nominations, after his predecessor Harry Reid had previously eliminated the filibuster for all other presidential nominations; Trump subsequently won confirmation battles on Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett for the Supreme Court. While supportive of most of Trump's domestic and foreign policies, McConnell was critical of Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, and despite voting to acquit on Trump's second impeachment trial on reasons related to the constitutionality of impeaching a former president, deemed him "practically and morally responsible" for the January 6 United States Capitol attack.[2]

  1. ^ McConnell, Mitch (2016). "Chapter One: A fighting spirit". The Long Game: a Memoir. New York, NY: Sentinel. p. 9. ISBN 9780399564123. Archived from the original on August 5, 2020. Retrieved January 27, 2020. ...my mother graduated from Wadley High School in 1937. Soon after graduation, she found her way out of rural Alabama and into Birmingham...It was here that she met A.M. McConnell II.
  2. ^ "McConnell says Trump was "practically and morally responsible" for riot after voting not guilty". www.cbsnews.com. February 14, 2021. Archived from the original on February 16, 2021. Retrieved May 12, 2021.