American politician and retired lawyer Addison Mitchell McConnell III has been the senior senator from Kentucky since 1985 as well as the Senate Minority Leader since 2021. Before that, he was majority whip from 2003 to 2007, minority leader from 2007 to 2015, and majority leader from 2015 to 2021. McConnell is the longest-serving Senate party leader in US history, having taken the helm of the Senate Republican Conference in 2007.
After serving as President Gerald Ford’s deputy assistant attorney general from 1974 to 1975, McConnell returned to his native Kentucky to take up the position of Jefferson County judge and executive from 1977 to 1984. McConnell is the second Kentuckian to hold the position of party leader in the Senate, having been elected to the Senate for the first time in 1984.
Early Life and Education of Mitch McConnell
Addison Mitchell “A.M.” McConnell II (1917–1990) and Julia Odene “Dean” (née Shockley; 1919–1993) were the parents of McConnell, who was born on February 20, 1942. McConnell was born in Sheffield, Alabama, and spent his childhood in the adjacent town of Athens, Alabama, where McConnell Funeral Home was owned by his great-uncle Addison Mitchell McConnell and grandfather Robert Hayes McConnell Sr. He possesses English and Scots-Irish ancestry. James McConnell, one of his ancestors, was an American combatant during the American Revolutionary War.
McConnell moved to Augusta, Georgia, with his family in 1950, when he was eight years old. His father, an Army officer, was stationed at Fort Gordon in Augusta.
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McConnell was present at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, during which the “I Have a Dream” speech was delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. During his 22nd year, he participated in civil rights rallies and completed an internship with Senator John Sherman Cooper in 1964. He has stated that his time with Cooper influenced his eventual decision to compete for the Senate.
McConnell received his law degree from the University of Kentucky College of Law in 1967, during which time he served as the Student Bar Association’s president.
Diving Into The Personal Life of Mitch McConnell
McConnell was confirmed eight years ago as a Southern Baptist. From 1968 to 1980, he was wed to his first wife, Sherrill Redmon; the couple had three daughters: Claire, Porter, and Eleanor (Elly). Porter McConnell serves as the campaign director for the left-leaning advocacy coalition Take on Wall Street. Redmon became a feminist scholar at Smith College and the director of the Sophia Smith Collection after her divorce from McConnell.
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McConnell wed Elaine Chao in 1993; she served as Secretary of Transportation under President Donald Trump and Secretary of Labor under President George W. Bush.
Gordon Hartogensis, the spouse of Chao’s sister Grace and brother-in-law of Mitch McConnell, was sworn in as director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), an agency of the Labor Department, by the U.S. Senate in May 2019. McConnell supported confirmation.
Political Positions Gained By Mitch McConnell
Over the past few decades, McConnell has adopted conservative positions. McConnell spearheaded the push for tougher campaign finance regulations while serving in the Senate, which culminated in the 2010 Supreme Court decision that largely struck down the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (McCain-Feingold).
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He spearheaded the resistance to Obamacare, first by working to stall or stop the law’s enactment and then by working to repeal or replace it with other measures including the American Healthcare Reform Act.
McConnell has argued against attempts to slow down climate change, tighter laws, and gun control measures. During his tenure as Senate Majority Leader, he was criticized by Nancy Pelosi for blocking votes on bills passed by the Democratic-controlled House, such as the Paycheck Fairness Act, the Equality Act, and the For the People Act of 2019.
He has also criticized proposed legislation by House Democrats, such as the Green New Deal and Medicare for All. McConnell has backed tax cuts, free trade deals, and increased border security. He spearheaded the passage of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act in 2018 and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017 while serving as Senate Majority Leader.
His foreign policy stances have included backing Israel, opposing the Iran Nuclear Deal, and supporting sanctions against Cuba, Iran, and Russia. Both in public and in his vote for the Iraq Resolution, which approved military action against Iraq, he was an advocate of the 2007 troop increase in that war.