On
November 15, 2006, U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell was
unanimously elected Republican leader in the 110th
Congress by his Republican colleagues. McConnell is the
15th Republican leader and is only the second Kentuckian
to lead his party in the U.S. Senate. The other leader
from Kentucky, Senator Alben Barkley, led the Democrats
from 1937 to 1949.Leader McConnell previously served,
again by the unanimous vote of his colleagues, as the
Majority Whip in the 108th and 109th Congresses.
McConnell also served in leadership as chairman of the
National Republican Senatorial Committee during the 1998
and 2000 election cycles.
McConnell was first elected to the Senate in 1984.
That year, he was the only Republican challenger in the
country to defeat a Democrat incumbent, and the first
Republican to win a statewide race in Kentucky since
1968. McConnell's landslide victory in 2002 is also one
for the record books: On November 5, he won a fourth term
with 65 percent of the vote, the largest margin of
victory for a Republican in Kentucky history. The
previous record was held by the legendary Senator John
Sherman Cooper. On June 27, 2005, McConnell became the
longest-serving Republican Senator from Kentucky, again
breaking a record previously held by Cooper.
Born on February 20, 1942, and raised in south
Louisville, McConnell graduated in 1964 with honors from
the University of Louisville College of Arts and
Sciences, where he served as student body president. In
1967, he graduated from the University of Kentucky
College of Law, where he was elected president of the
Student Bar Association. McConnell gained experience on
Capitol Hill working as an intern for Senator John
Sherman Cooper before serving as chief legislative
assistant to Senator Marlow Cook and deputy assistant
attorney general under President Gerald R. Ford. Before
his election to the U.S. Senate, McConnell served as
County Judge-Executive in Jefferson County, Kentucky,
from 1978 until he was sworn in to the Senate on January
3, 1985.
McConnell currently serves as a senior member of the
Appropriations, Agriculture and Rules Committees.
Senator McConnell is married to United States
Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao, a former president of
the United Way of America and director of the Peace
Corps. He is the proud father of three daughters.
Web Site:
http://mcconnell.senate.gov
Email Address:
senator@mcconnell.senate.gov
