Mitch McConnell

Mitch McConnell (2009)

Addison Mitchell "Mitch" McConnell Jr. (* 20 February 1942 in Tuscumbia , Colbert County , Alabama ) is an American politician of the Republican Party . He has represented the state of Kentucky in the US Senate since January 3, 1985 , where he has been Chairman of the Republican parliamentary group since January 2007 and since January 2015 the majority leader in the Senate.

Family, education and work

McConnell suffered from polio in his early childhood ; his treatment brought the family to the brink of insolvency while the father served during World War II . The family moved to Louisville , Kentucky when he was 13 years old. Here he grew up and completed the first station of his studies: in 1964 he earned his Bachelor of Arts in political science at the University of Louisville . In 1967 he graduated from the University of Kentucky Law School ; in the same year he was inducted into the state bar.

From 1967 he gained extensive experience in the Senate as personal assistant to the two Senators John Sherman Cooper and Marlow Cook . Under President Gerald Ford , he was assistant to the US Attorney General from 1974 to 1975 . Until he was elected to the Senate, he served as a district judge in Jefferson County in his home state.

McConnell is married to Elaine Chao , the former Secretary of Labor in the Bush administration . The couple are childless, but McConnell has three daughters from his first marriage (1968–1980). In January 2017, his wife became Secretary of Transportation under President Donald Trump .

Political career

US Senator

President Obama (right) receives McConnell in the Oval Office in August 2010

In the 1984 Senate election , he was the only Republican to succeed in defeating a Democratic Party mandate holder : In a tight decision, he prevailed over Walter Huddleston by a few thousand votes in an aggressive and humorous campaign that has become a classic , after Huddleston on At the beginning of the election campaign, it had an approval rating of 68 percent. McConnell was the first Republican since 1968 to win a state-wide election in Kentucky. McConnell has been re-elected five times since then; in the 2002 election , he won 65 percent of the vote, the largest majority any Republican has ever won in Kentucky. With that he surpassed the previous record of his mentor, Senator Cooper. His democratic rival Lois Combs Weinberg, the daughter of the former governor Bert Combs , had entered the dispute, despite a solid campaign strategy, at the disadvantage of having won the party primaries by just under 1,000 votes. McConnell managed to get unionists on his side by using his position of power to direct resources to Kentucky. Against his challenger Bruce Lunsford, McConnell achieved in the 2008 election - at the same time as Barack Obama's election as president - a significantly narrower victory with around 53 to 47 percent of the vote.

McConnell chaired the Ethics Committee from 1995 to 1997 . From January 1999 to June 2001 he was chairman of the Rules Committee for two non-consecutive terms . He also served on the National Republican Senatorial Committee from 1997 to 2001 . From 2003 to 2007 he served as a whip for the Republican majority faction.

After the defeat of his party in the Senate election in 2006 , he replaced Bill Frist, who had left Congress , on January 4, 2007, as parliamentary group leader. His style of politics is described as "boring and tough"; he is not in the limelight because of his charismatic appearances, but works behind the scenes through his assertiveness.

In the 2014 Senate election , the persistently unpopular McConnell had one of his toughest campaigns. As a mandate holder for decades and a powerful central figure of the Republicans in the Senate, he stepped up in an atmosphere that made these conditions a disadvantage: especially since the triumphant advance of the tea party movement in 2010 , veteran politicians - following a decades-old, widespread stereotype - Washington found itself in a difficult position as inefficient, corrupt and aloof. McConnell was opposed in the party primary by the wealthy businessman Matt Bevin , a tea party supporter, who forced McConnell to court the Republican base instead of swing voters in the political center to address. In Alison Lundergan Grimes he faced unexpectedly strong competition on the Democratic side, against which he confirmed his reputation as one of the toughest campaigners in the United States. The polls saw a head-to-head race between him and Lundergan Grimes for a long time, which is why the Cook Political Report classified the decision in August 2013 as a "toss up" (completely open), even if it was the clear favorite for many observers Re-election remained. In the course of the election campaign, McConnell succeeded in turning his long experience and position in Congress into political capital: he advertised that he could get a lot out of Kentucky as a powerful insider, turning the anti-establishment sentiment of parts of the party base to his Advantage.

On election day, McConnell was surprisingly able to prevail with a share of 56 percent of the vote, where he succeeded for the first time in winning the majority of voters in the traditionally democratically dominated coal-rich southeast Kentucky.

Majority leader in the Senate

Since the Republicans also won a majority in the Senate in 2014, he took up the post of majority leader in the Senate on January 3, 2015 .

Since January 2017, Donald Trump has been a Republican again as US President. McConnell has been in the public eye since then, along with his fellow party member Paul Ryan , who acted as Speaker of the House until the 2018 midterm elections . In this role, he endeavored to implement political reform projects that the Republicans had announced for years, including the abolition of the Obamacare health care reform . His relationship with Trump is considered very tense; The President has accused McConnell of not providing him with sufficient support in the investigation into an alleged collusion between Trump's campaign team and Russian authorities . McConnell, on the other hand, has criticized Trump's lack of understanding of the legislative processes in Congress. In August 2017, it was reported that the two men had not spoken directly to each other for months.

Despite several attempts, McConnell was unable to organize a majority for the abolition of Obamacare . McConnell, on the other hand, managed to get many conservative-minded judges to high office, including two lifetime Supreme Court justices, Neil Gorsuch in April 2017 and Brett Kavanaugh in October 2018. McConnell described these achievements as key moments in conservative politics in the United States ; According to McClatchy DC , the hitherto largely unloved McConnell achieved the status of a hero within the political right.

McConnell massively criticized Trump in October 2019. Trump had previously withdrawn US soldiers from northern Syria, thus giving Erdoğan the opportunity to invade northern Syria .

Web links

Commons : Mitch McConnell  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

Wikiquote: Mitch McConnell  - Quotes

Wikisource: Mitch McConnell  - Sources and full texts (English)

• Web presence at the Congress (English)
• Mitch McConnell in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• Chelsey Parrott-Sheffer: Mitch McConnell. In: Encyclopedia Britannica , June 24, 2009 (English; updated several times)

supporting documents

1. ↑ Jesse Hicks: In 1990, Mitch McConnell Supported Affordable Healthcare for All. In: Vice.com , June 26, 2017.
2. ↑ Chelsey Parrott-Sheffer: Mitch McConnell. In: Encyclopedia Britannica , June 24, 2009.
3. ^ Judith S. Trent, Robert V. Friedenberg, Robert E. Denton: Political Campaign Communication. Principles and Practices. 7th edition. Rowman & Littlefield, Plymouth 2011, ISBN 978-1-4422-0671-7 , p. 161 ; Jane Mayer: Who Let the Attack-Ad Dogs Out? In: The New Yorker , February 15, 2012 (English).
4. ↑ Chelsey Parrott-Sheffer: Mitch McConnell. In: Encyclopedia Britannica , June 24, 2009.
5. ↑ McConnell, Mitch. In: Our Campaigns.
6. ^ Brian Tucker: Focus on '14: The Many Faces of Mitch McConnell. In: Insider Louisville , November 21, 2012 (English).
7. ↑ Kathleen Hunter: US Midterm Elections 2014: Mitch McConnell's Decades-Long Dream of Becoming Senate Majority Leader Within his Grasp. In: National Post , November 4, 2014.
8. ^ Richard Waterman, Amelia A. Rouse, Robert Wright: Bureaucrats, Politics, and the Environment. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh 2004, ISBN 0-8229-5829-5 , p. 7 .
9. ↑ Patrick O'Connor: Mitch McConnell Campaigns on Clout Despite Anti-Insider Mood. Kentucky Senator's Re-Election Bid to Test Whether Consummate Insider Can Win Amid Anti-Washington Feeling. In: The Wall Street Journal , March 18, 2014.
10. ^ Sarah Mimms: Bevin, Grimes Earn Praise at Fancy Farm. ( Memento of the original from August 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: National Journal , August 4, 2013. 
11. ↑ Chris Cillizza: The Nastiest Senate Race in the Country Just Started. In: The Washington Post , July 1, 2013. See also Michael Falcone: Alison Lundergan Grimes Gets Harsh Welcome To Kentucky Senate Race From McConnell Campaign. ( Memento of the original from July 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: ABC News , July 2, 2013. 
12. ↑ Jennifer Duffy, KY Senate Moves to Toss Up. ( Memento of the original from August 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Cook Political Report , Aug. 2, 2013. See also Susan Davis: Sen. McConnell Already in Hot 2014 Re-Election Race. In: USA Today , August 4, 2013. 
13. ^ Nate Cohn: Ignore the Polls: McConnell Is Still the Favorite in Kentucky. In: New Republic , August 2, 2013; Larry J. Sabato, Kyle Kondik: Ratings Changes - And Non-Changes. McConnell, Grimes and Meaning of Our Ratings. In: Sabato's Crystal Ball , University of Virginia Center for Politics, Aug. 8, 2013.
14. ↑ Simon Maloy: Mitch McConnell's Power Trip: In an Anti-Washington Cycle, McConnell Won by Being an Insider. In: Salon.com , November 5, 2014.
15. ↑ Manu Raju, Lucy McCalmont: Mitch McConnell Defeats Alison Lundergan Grimes in Kentucky. In: Politico , November 4, 2014.
16. ↑ US Politics: Republicans elect McConnell as the strong man in the Senate. In: Spiegel Online , November 13, 2014.
17. ↑ Lauren Fox, Deirdre Walsh and Maegan Vazquez, CNN: House Speaker Paul Ryan won't seek re-election . In: CNN . ( cnn.com [accessed November 1, 2018]).
18. ^ Robert Costa, Sean Sullivan: The Trump-McConnell bond is being tested. This is the GOP agenda. In: The Washington Post , June 27, 2017; Trump doesn't get Senate on line. In: Spiegel Online , June 28, 2017.
19. ↑ Beat Ammann: US President versus Mitch McConnell: Trump's relationship with his most important man in the Senate hits rock bottom. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , 23 August 2017.
20. ↑ Oliver Kühn: A day to tick off. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , September 27, 2017.
21. ↑ Burgess Everett, John Bresnahan: McConnell: Conservative revamp of the courts isn't done yet. In: Politico , October 6, 2018; Emma Dumain: Kavanaugh drama vaults McConnell to status of GOP icon - and Democratic villain. In: McClatchy DC , October 6, 2018.
22. ↑ washingtonpost.com: Withdrawing from Syria is a grave mistake (guest post)
23. ↑ spiegel.de October 19, 2019: Mighty Republican boss condemns Trump's course in Syria