When you talk about the oldest senator in Kentucky history, nobody thinks of Mitch McConnell. He is the Senate Majority Leader and the second person from Kentucky to lead his party in the Senate. A US senator and member of the Republican Party, he joined the Senate in 1984 and has since been reelected five times. Mitch previously served as chairman of the Republican National Committee of Senators and was first elected to the position of majority whip in the 108th Congress and then re-elected. He then became Senate Minority Leader until his party took control of the Senate, which made him Senate Majority Leader.
Mitch McConnell’s Biography
Mitch was born Addison Mitchell McConnell Jr. on February 20, 1942, to parents of Scottish, Irish, and English descent. He was born in Sheffield, Alabama and raised in Athens. At an early age, Mitch contracted polio, which cost his parents a fortune to give him treatment. He eventually beat the disease and narrowly avoided being disabled for the rest of his life. He attended DuPont Manual High School and earned a BA with honors from the University of Louisville. in political science in 1964.
Mitch became student council president of the College of Arts and Sciences and went to study law at the University of Kentucky, where he also became president of the Student Bar Association. Mitch McConnell was also drafted into the US Army Reserve, but after a few weeks of military training, he was medically discharged.
Political career
Mitch McConnell became an intern for Senator JohnSherman Cooper in 1964 and also assisted Senator Marlow Cook. He became Assistant Deputy Attorney General under President Gerald R. Ford. He was elected to the office of judge and executive of Jefferson County and was re-elected in 1981. In 1984, Mitch began to run for the United States Senate against incumbent Democratic President Walter Dee Huddleston, who was then running for the second time.
Fortunately, McConnell only won the election by a narrow margin of 0.4%, making him the only Republican Senate candidate to win an election that year. Its success is partly attributed to its effective series of television campaign programs. The 1990 elections were marked by a bitter struggle against a former mayor whom he defeated by 4.4%. In 1996 he beat Steve Beshear by 12.6% again using his funny yet effective TV campaign programs.
In 2002, he was re-elected again winning against Lois Combs Weinberg with 29.4% making him the Republican candidate with the largest majority in Kentucky history. Although the 2008 election was tough for McConnell, he still managed to defeat Bruce Lunsford by a 6% margin. In 2014, he beat his opponent 56.2% to 40.7%, giving him a 15.5% margin of victory.
For a senator who was initially known for his pragmatism and moderate ideas, he has since become more liberal and progressive. Without a doubt, he is an experienced and accomplished senator became the longest serving senator from Kentucky in the history of the United States by 2018.
Net value
McConnell is one of the selection committee members for the Jefferson Award for Public Service. He also founded the James Madison Free Speech Center in Washington, DC, to advocate for himself. He was later inducted into the Sons of the American Revolution on March 1, 2013. Moreso, “The OpenSecrets Website,” listed Mitch McConnell among the wealthiest members of the US Senate, whose finances grew after his beau -father gave him a gift ranging from 5 to 25 million dollars. His net worth is currently estimated at $22.5 million.
Family – wife and children
Mitch McConnell got married to Sherrill Redmon in 1968 and they both had three beautiful daughters named Elly, Claire and Porter. However, the couple separated in 1980. In 1993, he met and married Elaine Chao, former Secretary of Labor and administrator to George W. Bush. In November 2016, President Donald Trump appointed Elaine as Secretary of Transportation. This appointment was later confirmed by the Senate in January 2017.
Is he gay?
Mitch McConnell is not a gay man and he is not anti-gay either compared to most members of his party. However, his opinion on gay rights and his reluctance to make it a political issue during his campaigns led to much speculation about his homosexuality. But other investigations, alongside the fact that he married a second wife after his divorce, suggest that he is indeed a straight man.