One way or another, Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell may be gearing up to exit political life soon. But if he does, he’ll likely burn down a few more norms first, reports say.
According to a March 4 story from the Intercept, the Senator has been pushing Senate Bill 228 to the Kentucky General Assembly.
The bill, which is sponsored by Kentucky Sens. Robert Stivers and Tom Buford, would prevent the Kentucky governor — who currently is a Democrat — from appointing McConnel’s replacement or any replacement in the Senate.
Instead, the bill says, a state executive committee of the same party as the vacating Senator would submit three candidates for succeeding, one of whom ultimately would be appointed to do so until the next election.
If the bill is approved and McConnell vacates his seat tomorrow, for example, that would mean that current Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat elected in 2019, would not be able to appoint McConnell’s replacement as the current state law stipulates. Kentucky Republicans would decide who would lead the state.
The bill would need to pass the Kentucky Senate and House. Republicans currently hold veto-proof majorities in both.
McConnell is 79 years old and has been in the Senate since 1985, so it comes as no surprise that the Senator is planning ahead to continue his legacy of bucking norms and amassing power for the GOP. The Senator has had health concerns over the years, writes the Intercept:
McConnell’s health has been a concern since boyhood. In 1944, he contracted polio and with his mother’s persistence, the young McConnell recovered and learned to walk again. In 2003, McConnell underwent a triple bypass heart surgery. In late October 2020, McConnell dismissed concerns over his health after appearing with bruised and bandaged hands days before his reelection. The previous year, the Kentucky Republican spent weeks recuperating after a fall which forced him to have surgery for a shoulder injury.
The Intercept claims that McConnell has cultivated a list of people who he’d like to see take his place should he not be able to serve his full term.
McConnell’s shortlist reportedly includes Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who is the first Republican to hold the office since 1944 as well as the first Black person ever to hold it in the state. Also topping the list, the Intercept says, is former United Nations Ambassador Kelly Craft, who served 2019-2021 under former U.S. President Donald Trump and whose husband is a major McConnell donor.
Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams, who was a McConnell Scholar at the University of Louisville, also reportedly has McConnell’s approval.
