Mitch McConnell is a member of the U.S. Senate from Kentucky. He assumed office on January 3, 1985. His current term ends on January 3, 2027. On February 20, 2025, McConnell announced he would not seek re-election to the U.S. Senate in 2026. In his announcement, he said, "Seven times, my fellow Kentuckians have sent me to the Senate. Every day in between I’ve been humbled by the trust they’ve placed in me to do their business here. McConnell served as the Senate majority leader between 2015 and 2021. He also served as Senate minority leader between 2007 and 2015, and again between 2021 and 2025. In 2023, McConnell became the longest-serving U.S. Senate leader in history. He announced on February 28, 2024, that he would step down as leader in November 2024. McConnell was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama, in 1942 and graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Law in 1967.<name=Congbio/> He served as judge-executive of Jefferson County, Kentucky, from 1979 to 1985, when he was first elected to the Senate. According to The Washington Post's Dan Balz, McConnell's "overriding priority was to remake the federal judiciary." In 2016, McConnell delayed a vote on Merrick Garland, then-President Barack Obama's nominee to fill the late Justice Antonin Scalia's seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. McConnell said, "The American people should have a say in the court's direction. It is a president's constitutional right to nominate a Supreme Court justice, and it is the Senate's constitutional right to act as a check on the president and withhold its consent." Donald Trump won the presidential election in 2016. Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch to the court on January 31, 2017.
