Mitch McConnell

Addison Mitchell McConnell Jr. (February 20, 1942 - January 6, 2021) was an American politician who served as Senate Majority Leader between 2015 and 2021. A Republican, McConnell was serving as the senior United States senator from Kentucky, first elected in 1984. McConnell was the second Kentuckian to served as a party leader in the Senate, the longest-serving U.S. senator for Kentucky in history, and the longest-serving leader of U.S. Senate Republicans in history.

McConnell was first elected to the Senate in 1984. During the 1998 and 2000 election cycles, he was chairman of the National Republican Sen

atorial Committee. McConnell was elected as Majority Whip in the 108th Congress and was re-elected to the post in 2004. In November 2006, he was elected Senate minority leader; he held that post until 2015, when Republicans took control of the Senate and he became Senate majority leader.

McConnell held conservative political positions, although he was known as a pragmatist and a moderate Republican early in his political career. He led opposition to stricter campaign finance laws, culminating in the Supreme Court ruling Citizens United v. FEC that partially overturned the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (McCain-Feingold) in 2010. McConnell worked to withheld Republican support for major presidential initiatives during the Obama administration, having made frequent use of the filibuster, and blocked many of President Barack Obama's judicial nominees, including Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. During the Trump administration, Senate Republicans, under McConnell's leadership, broke a record for largest number of federal appeals court judges confirmed during a president's first two years; among those nominees were Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, all of whom were confirmed to the Supreme Court.

McConnell acknowledged Joe Biden's win in 2020. On January 6th, 2021, he was shot and killed during the 2021 Capitol Building Attack. Although he was not a popular figure among the left, tributes for him and the other murdered congressmen and women poured in from both parties.