McConnell, Mitch, 1942-

<p>Addison Mitchell McConnell Jr. (born February 20, 1942) is an American politician serving as Kentucky's senior United States senator and as Senate Majority Leader. McConnell is the second Kentuckian to lead his party in the Senate, the longest-serving U.S. senator for Kentucky in history, and the longest-serving leader of U.S. Senate Republicans in history.</p>

<p>McConnell was first elected to the Senate in 1984 and has been re-elected five times since. During the 1998 and 2000 election cycles, he was chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. McConnell was elected as Majority Whip in the 108th Congress and was re-elected to the post in 2004. In November 2006, he was elected Senate Minority Leader; he held that post until 2015, when Republicans took control of the Senate and he became Senate Majority Leader.</p>

<p>McConnell was known as a pragmatist and a moderate Republican early in his political career but shifted to the right over time. He led opposition to stricter campaign finance laws, culminating in the Supreme Court ruling that partially overturned the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (McCain-Feingold) in 2009. During the Obama administration, McConnell worked to withhold Republican support for major presidential initiatives, made frequent use of the filibuster, and blocked many of Obama's judicial nominees, including Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. Under McConnell's leadership of the Senate, Obama saw the fewest judicial nominees confirmed in the final two years of a presidency since 1951–52. During the Trump administration, Senate Republicans, under McConnell's leadership, broke records on the number of judicial nominees confirmed; among those nominees were Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh who were confirmed to the Supreme Court. McConnell was included in the Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world in 2015.</p>

<p>Mitch McConnell is the Senate Majority Leader. Elected to that position unanimously by his Republican colleagues first in 2014 and again in 2016 and 2018, he is only the second Kentuckian to ever serve as Majority Leader in the U.S. Senate. The first, Senator Alben Barkley, led the Democrats from 1937 to 1949.</p>

<p>Senator McConnell has served, again by the unanimous vote of his colleagues, as the Republican Leader since the 110th Congress. He is the longest-serving Senate Republican Leader in the history of the United States. McConnell previously served in leadership as the Majority Whip in the 108th and 109th Congresses and as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee during the 1998 and 2000 election cycles.</p>

<p>McConnell has been called “the most conservative leader of either party in the history of the Senate.” He has also earned a reputation as a “master tactician” for permanently locking in critical tax relief for working families and small businesses, and putting in place the most significant spending reduction legislation in a generation.</p>

<p>He has received praise from numerous media outlets for his work as Senate Majority Leader. In 2015 and 2019, TIME Magazine named McConnell one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.</p>

<p>First elected to the Senate in 1984, McConnell is Kentucky’s longest-serving senator. He made history that year as the only Republican challenger in the country to defeat an incumbent Democrat and as the first Republican to win a statewide Kentucky race since 1968. On November 4, 2014, he was elected to a record sixth term by receiving broad support across Kentucky, winning 110 of the Commonwealth’s 120 counties.</p>

<p>McConnell graduated with honors from the University of Louisville College of Arts and Sciences, where he served as student body president. He also is a graduate of the University of Kentucky College of Law, where he was elected president of the Student Bar Association.</p>

<p>McConnell worked as an intern on Capitol Hill for Senator John Sherman Cooper before serving as chief legislative assistant to Senator Marlow Cook and as Deputy Assistant Attorney General to President Gerald Ford.</p>

<p>Before his election to the Senate, he served as judge-executive of Jefferson County, Kentucky, from 1978 until he commenced his Senate term on January 3, 1985.</p>

<p>McConnell currently serves as a senior member of the Appropriations, Agriculture and Rules Committees. He is the proud father of three daughters.</p>

<p>McConnell is married to Secretary Elaine L. Chao, the 18th U.S. Secretary of Transportation. Previously, Secretary Chao served for eight years as President George W. Bush’s U.S. Secretary of Labor. She is also a former president of the United Way of America and director of the Peace Corps.</p>

<p>MCCONNELL, ADDISON MITCHELL (MITCH), a Senator from Kentucky; born in Tuscumbia, Colbert County, Ala., February 20, 1942; attended Louisville, Ky. public schools; graduated, University of Louisville 1964; graduated, University of Kentucky Law School, Lexington 1967; admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1967; legislative assistant to Senator Marlow Cook 1968-1970; Deputy Assistant United States Attorney for Legislative Affairs 1974-1975; Acting Assistant Attorney General 1975; elected judge-executive of Jefferson County, Ky., 1978-1985; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1984; reelected in 1990, 1996, 2002, 2008, and again in 2014 for the term ending January 3, 2021; Republican party whip (2003-2007); minority leader (2007-2015); majority leader (2015-); chair, Select Committee on Ethics (One Hundred Fourth Congress), National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee (One Hundred Fifth through One Hundred Sixth Congresses), Committee on Rules and Administration (One Hundred Sixth Congress, One Hundred Seventh Congress [January 20, 2001-June 6, 2001]).</p>