2023 KTY 08-15 Sen. McConnell

Mitch McConnell is the senior U.S. Senator from Kentucky. First elected in 1984, he has been Senate Republican Leader since 2007 and served as Senate Majority Leader from 2015 to 2021.

McConnell, 83, previously served in leadership as the Majority Whip in the 108th and 109th Congresses and as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee during the 1998 and 2000 election cycles. TIME Magazine named McConnell one of the 100 Most Influential People in the world.

He graduated with honors from the University of Louisville College of Arts and Sciences, where he served as student body president. He also is a graduate of the University of Kentucky College of Law, where he was elected president of the Student Bar Association.

An Alabama native, McConnell worked as an intern on Capitol Hill for Senator John Sherman Cooper before serving as chief legislative assistant to Senator Marlow Cook and as Deputy Assistant Attorney General to President Gerald Ford. He became Jefferson County Judge Executive in 1977 and served in that position until his election to the Senate.  

McConnell is married to Elaine Chao, who served as the 18th U.S. Secretary of Transportation.

(Sources: McConnell website, Wikipedia)