Mitch McConnell facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Mitch McConnell
Official portrait, 2016
United States Senator from Kentucky
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 1985 Serving with Rand Paul
Preceded by	Walter Dee Huddleston
Senate positions Chair of the Senate Rules Committee Incumbent Assumed office January 3, 2025 Preceded by Amy Klobuchar In office January 20, 2001 – June 6, 2001 Preceded by Chris Dodd Succeeded by Chris Dodd In office January 3, 1999 – January 3, 2001 Preceded by John Warner Succeeded by Chris Dodd Senate Majority Leader In office January 3, 2015 – January 20, 2021 Whip John Cornyn John Thune Preceded by Harry Reid Succeeded by Chuck Schumer Senate Minority Leader In office January 20, 2021 – January 3, 2025 Whip John Thune Preceded by Chuck Schumer Succeeded by Chuck Schumer In office January 3, 2007 – January 3, 2015 Whip Trent Lott Jon Kyl John Cornyn Preceded by Harry Reid Succeeded by Harry Reid Leader of the Senate Republican Conference In office January 3, 2007 – January 3, 2025 Preceded by Bill Frist Succeeded by John Thune Senate Majority Whip In office January 3, 2003 – January 3, 2007 Leader Bill Frist Preceded by Harry Reid Succeeded by Dick Durbin
Judge-Executive of Jefferson County
In office December 1, 1977 – December 21, 1984
Preceded by	Todd Hollenbach III
Succeeded by	Bremer Ehrler
United States Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legislative Affairs
Acting
In office February 1, 1975 – June 27, 1975
President	Gerald Ford
Preceded by	Vincent Rakestraw
Succeeded by	Michael Uhlmann
Personal details
Born	Addison Mitchell McConnell III (1942-02-20) February 20, 1942 (age 83) Sheffield, Alabama, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouses	Sherrill Redmon ​ ​ (m. 1968; div. 1980)​ Elaine Chao ​ (m. 1993)​
Children	3
Residences	Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.
Education	University of Louisville (BA) University of Kentucky (JD)
Signature
Military service
Branch	United States Army Army Reserve
Service	July 9, 1967 – August 15, 1967 (medical separation)

Addison Mitchell McConnell III ( born February 20, 1942) is an American politician and retired attorney serving as the senior United States senator from Kentucky, a seat he has held since 1985. McConnell is in his seventh Senate term and is the longest-serving senator in Kentucky history. He served from 2007 to 2025 as the leader of the Senate Republican Conference, including two stints as minority leader (2007 to 2015 and 2021 to 2025), and was majority leader from 2015 to 2021, 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 decision Citizens United v. FEC, which 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, making frequent use of the filibuster, and blocked many of President Obama's judicial nominees, including Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland.

During the first Trump administration, the Senate Republican majority under McConnell's 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, and 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 eliminated the filibuster for all other presidential nominations; Trump subsequently won Supreme Court confirmation battles over Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. While supportive of most of Trump's domestic and foreign policies, McConnell criticized Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, and despite voting to acquit in Trump's second impeachment trial for reasons related to the constitutionality of impeaching a former president, deemed him "practically and morally responsible" for the January 6 United States Capitol attack. In late 2024, McConnell wrote an essay on his current view of American power and the foreign policy mistakes of former presidents.

In 2015, 2019 and 2023, Time listed McConnell as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. On February 28, 2024, McConnell announced that he would step down as the Senate Republican Conference Leader in January 2025, but would serve the remainder of his Senate term. An internal election to fill the post of Senate Republican Leader was held on November 13, in which South Dakota senator John Thune was selected. On February 20, 2025 (his 83rd birthday), McConnell announced he would not run for an eighth Senate term in 2026 and would retire from politics. This came after increasing concerns about his health and ability to continue serving.

Early life and education (1942–1967)

McConnell in duPont Manual High School's 1960 yearbook

McConnell was born on February 20, 1942, to Julia Odene "Dean" (née Shockley; 1919–1993) and Addison Mitchell "A.M." McConnell II (1917–1990). McConnell was born in Sheffield, Alabama, and grew up in nearby Athens, Alabama, where his grandfather, Robert Hayes McConnell Sr. and his great uncle Addison Mitchell McConnell, owned McConnell Funeral Home. He is of Scots-Irish and English descent. One of his ancestors fought on the American side in the American Revolutionary War.

In 1944, at the age of two, McConnell's upper left leg was paralyzed by a polio attack. He received treatment at the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation. The treatment potentially saved him from being disabled for the rest of his life. McConnell said his family "almost went broke" because of costs related to his illness.

In 1950, when he was eight, McConnell moved with his family from Athens to Augusta, Georgia, where his father, who was in the Army, was stationed at Fort Gordon.

In 1956, his family moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where he attended duPont Manual High School. McConnell was elected student council president at his high school during his junior year. He graduated Omicron Delta Kappa from the University of Louisville with a B.A. in political science in 1964 with honors. He was president of the Student Council of the College of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity.

McConnell attended the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Martin Luther King Jr. gave the "I Have a Dream" speech. In 1964, at the age of 22, he attended civil rights rallies, and interned with Senator John Sherman Cooper. He has said his time with Cooper inspired him to run for the Senate later in life.

In 1967, McConnell graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Law, where he was president of the Student Bar Association.

Early career (1967–1984)

In March 1967, shortly before the expiration of his educational draft deferment upon graduation from law school, McConnell enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve as a private at Louisville, Kentucky. This was a coveted position because the Reserve units were mostly kept out of combat during the Vietnam War. His first day of training at Fort Knox, Kentucky, was July 9, 1967, two days after taking the bar exam, and his last day was August 15, 1967. Shortly after his arrival, he was diagnosed with optic neuritis and was deemed medically unfit for military service. After five weeks at Fort Knox, he was honorably discharged. His brief time in service has repeatedly been put at issue by his political opponents during his electoral campaigns.

From 1968 to 1970, McConnell worked as chief legislative assistant to Senator Marlow Cook in Washington, D.C., managing a legislative department consisting of five members as well as assisting with speech writing and constituent services.

In 1971, McConnell returned to Louisville, where he worked for Tom Emberton's candidacy for Governor of Kentucky, which was unsuccessful. McConnell attempted to run for a seat in the state legislature but was disqualified because he did not meet the residency requirements for the office. He then went to work for a Louisville law firm, Segal, Isenberg, Sales and Stewart, for a few years. During the same time period, he taught a night class on political science at the University of Louisville.

In October 1974, McConnell returned to Washington to fill a position as Deputy Assistant Attorney General under President Gerald Ford, where he worked alongside Robert Bork, Laurence Silberman, and Antonin Scalia. He also served as acting United States Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legislative Affairs under President Ford in 1975.

In 1977, McConnell was elected the Jefferson County judge/executive, the top political office in Jefferson County, Kentucky, at the time, defeating incumbent Democrat Todd Hollenbach, III, 53% to 47%. He was re-elected in 1981 against Jefferson County Commissioner Jim "Pop" Malone, 51% to 47%, outspending Malone 3–1, and occupied this office until his election to the U.S. Senate in 1984.

U.S. Senate (1985–present)

Past official portraits

1985

2001

2006

2009

2011

President Ronald Reagan in a meeting with McConnell in the Oval Office, March 1987

President George H. W. Bush with McConnell and Elaine Chao in February 1991

Mitch McConnell in 1992

President George W. Bush shakes hands with McConnell at Bush's first inauguration, January 2001.

In his early years as a politician in Kentucky, McConnell was known as a pragmatist and a moderate Republican. Over time he became more conservative.

From 1997 to 2001, McConnell chaired the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the body charged with securing electoral victories for Republicans. On February 12, 1999, he was one of 50 senators to vote to convict and remove Bill Clinton from office. He was first elected Majority Whip in the 108th Congress. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist did not seek reelection in the 2006 elections. In November, after Republicans lost control of the Senate, they elected McConnell minority leader. After Republicans took control of the Senate following the 2014 Senate elections, McConnell became the Senate majority leader. In June 2018 he became the longest-serving Senate Republican leader in U.S. history. McConnell is the second Kentuckian to serve as a party leader in the Senate (after Alben W. Barkley led the Democrats from 1937 to 1949) and the longest-serving U.S. senator from Kentucky.

McConnell has a reputation as a skilled political strategist and tactician. This reputation dimmed after Republicans failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) in 2017 during consolidated Republican control of government.

McConnell regularly obtained earmarks for businesses and institutions in Kentucky until Congress banned the practice in 2010. He has been criticized for funding "temporary patches" to Kentucky's long-term healthcare problems while simultaneously opposing and obstructing national programs that seek to improve healthcare more systematically, such as Obamacare and Medicaid expansion.

Donald Trump, Mike Pence, Paul Ryan, and McConnell celebrate the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, December 2017.

Approval ratings

As the leader of the Senate Republicans, McConnell has received much of the criticism and disapproval that Republicans receive from Democratic voters, receiving near uniform disapproval from left-of-center voters. Furthermore, as a result of his unpopularity with Trump and the more populist base, McConnell has had historically low approval for a senator by the electorate as a whole: a 2012 poll and a 2016 poll each found that McConnell had the lowest home-state approval rating of any sitting senator. With a 49% disapproval rate in 2017, McConnell had the highest disapproval rating of any senator.

Senator Mitch McConnell in Kentucky on October 30, 2024

In September 2019, the Morning Consult found that McConnell's approval rating had been underwater since the first quarter of 2017, when it was 44% positive and 47% negative. The worst rating since that time was in the fourth quarter of 2018, when he had a 38% positive rating and a 47% negative rating among Kentuckians. At that time he was briefly not the least popular senator, surpassed by Claire McCaskill and Jeff Flake. But as of the second quarter of 2019, McConnell's ratings were 36% positive and 50% negative. He netted −56 among Democrats, +29 among Republicans, and −24 among Independents. An average of polls by the Economist/YouGov, Politico/Morning Consult, and Harvard-Harris from the end of July through August 2019 (7/31–8/27), was 23% favorable and 48% unfavorable (−25.0 spread).

In 2020, according to Morning Consult, Susan Collins edged out McConnell as the least popular senator with a 52% unfavorable rating from Maine voters compared to 50% for McConnell.

Committee assignments

McConnell's committee assignments for the 118th Congress are as follows:

• Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
  • Subcommittee on Commodities, Risk Management, and Trade
  • Subcommittee on Conservation, Climate, Forestry, and Natural Resources
  • Subcommittee on Food and Nutrition, Specialty Crops, Organics, and Research
• Committee on Appropriations
  • Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies
  • Subcommittee on Defense
  • Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development
  • Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies
  • Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans' Affairs, and Related Agencies
  • Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
• Committee on Rules and Administration
• Select Committee on Intelligence (ex officio)

Political positions

McConnell has taken conservative stances for the past several decades. McConnell has opposed stronger regulations, gun control measures and efforts to mitigate climate change. He has criticized proposed legislation by House Democrats such as the Green New Deal and Medicare for All, and was criticized by Nancy Pelosi for withholding votes on measures passed by the Democratic-controlled House during his time as Senate Majority Leader, including the For the People Act of 2019, the Equality Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act. McConnell has supported stronger border security, free trade agreements and reductions in taxes. As Senate Majority Leader, he led the passing of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act in 2018. His foreign policy views have included support of sanctions on Cuba, Iran and Russia, support of Ukraine, opposition to the Iran nuclear deal and support of Israel in its Gaza war. He voted for the Iraq Resolution, which authorized military action against Iraq, and supported the Iraq War troop surge of 2007 in public.

Earlier in his political career, during the 1960s and 1970s, McConnell held moderate stances, including support unions and support of the civil rights movement.

Personal life

McConnell and his wife, Elaine Chao, January 2019

Family

McConnell is a Southern Baptist, baptized at age 8. He was married to his first wife, Sherrill Redmon, from 1968 to 1980 and had three daughters, Porter, Eleanor (Elly), and Claire. Porter McConnell is the campaign director for Take on Wall Street, a left-wing advocacy coalition. Following her divorce from McConnell, Redmon became a feminist scholar at Smith College and director of the Sophia Smith Collection.

McConnell's second wife, whom he married in 1993, is Elaine Chao, Secretary of Labor under President George W. Bush and Secretary of Transportation under President Donald Trump.

In May 2019, McConnell's brother-in-law Gordon Hartogensis, who is married to Chao's sister Grace, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), a part of the Labor Department. McConnell voted to confirm.

Health

McConnell's upper left leg was paralyzed during his childhood by polio.

In February 2003, McConnell underwent a triple heart bypass surgery in relation to blocked arteries, at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

In August 2019, McConnell suffered a fall at his Louisville home; he fractured his shoulder. In March 2023, he was hospitalized for five days after a fall; he was treated for a concussion and a minor rib fracture, and did not return to the Senate for almost six weeks. In July 2023, he fell while disembarking from a plane at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. On December 10, 2024, McConnell sustained a fall during a Senate Republican Conference policy luncheon, spraining his wrist and cutting his face.

On July 26, 2023, McConnell prompted worldwide media reports when he froze, unspeaking, for around 20 seconds while addressing a press conference. He was escorted away by aides, but later returned and said he was "fine". Two days after the incident, his spokespersons said that McConnell would continue in his leadership role; he is the institution's longest-serving party leader. On August 30, 2023, he again froze during a press conference in Covington, Kentucky and was eventually led away by staff. A day later, McConnell released a letter from the attending physician of Congress that said that he was "medically clear" to continue his schedule as planned; the letter said that the physician had talked to McConnell and "conferred with his neurology team", but did not indicate that he had physically examined McConnell.

Other

In 1997, McConnell founded the James Madison Center for Free Speech, a legal-defense organization based in Washington, D.C. He was inducted into the Sons of the American Revolution on March 1, 2013. He is on the Board of Selectors of Jefferson Awards for Public Service.

In 2018, the OpenSecrets website ranked McConnell one of the wealthiest members of the U.S. Senate, with a net worth of more than $25 million. His personal wealth grew in 2008, when he and his wife received a gift worth about $5 million to about $25 million from her father, James S. C. Chao, after the death of his wife.

See also

In Spanish: Mitch McConnell para niños