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Sen. Mitch McConnell

Senate Majority Leader and Senator for Kentucky

pronounced mich // muh-KA-nul

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McConnell is the senior senator from Kentucky and is a Republican. He has served since Jan 3, 1985. McConnell is next up for reelection in 2020.

He is also Senate Majority Leader, a party leadership role. Party leaders focus more on setting their party’s legislative priorties than on introducing legislation.

Photo of Sen. Mitch McConnell [R-KY]

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2019 Report Card for McConnell.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

McConnell is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot is a member of the Senate positioned according to our liberal–conservative ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).

The chart is based on the bills McConnell has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 2015 to Jan 21, 2020. See full analysis methodology.

Ratings from Advocacy Organizations

Committee Membership

Mitch McConnell sits on the following committees:

Enacted Legislation

McConnell was the primary sponsor of 25 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

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Does 25 not sound like a lot? Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law. But there are other legislative activities that we don’t track that are also important, including offering amendments, committee work and oversight of the other branches, and constituent services.

We consider a bill enacted if one of the following is true: a) it is enacted itself, b) it has a companion bill in the other chamber (as identified by Congress) which was enacted, or c) if at least about half of its provisions were incorporated into bills that were enacted (as determined by an automated text analysis, applicable beginning with bills in the 110th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

McConnell sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

International Affairs (25%) Health (14%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (14%) Crime and Law Enforcement (11%) Environmental Protection (11%) Taxation (11%) Government Operations and Politics (7%) Economics and Public Finance (7%)

Recent Bills

Some of McConnell’s most recently sponsored bills include...

View All » | View Cosponsors »

As Senate Majority Leader, McConnell may be focused on his responsibilities other than introducing legislation, such as setting the chamber’s agenda, uniting his party, and brokering deals.

Voting Record

Key Votes

McConnell voted Yea

Conference Report Agreed to 83/16 on Feb 14, 2019.
This bill, in its final form, funded the parts of the federal government whose funding was to lapse on February 15, 2019. On December 22, ...

McConnell voted Yea

Bill Passed 72/26 on Sep 28, 2016.
The Continuing Appropriations and Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017, and Zika Response and Preparedness Act (H.R. 5325) is an appropriations ...

McConnell voted Yea

McConnell voted Yea

McConnell voted Yea

Joint Resolution Passed 78/22 on Sep 18, 2014.

McConnell voted Nay

McConnell voted Yea

Motion Agreed to 81/19 on Dec 15, 2010.
The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 (Pub.L. 111–312, H.R. 4853, 124 Stat. 3296, enacted December 17, 2010), also known ...

McConnell voted Nay

Conference Report Agreed to 79/12 on Sep 7, 2007.

Missed Votes

From Jan 1985 to Jan 2020, McConnell missed 84 of 11,658 roll call votes, which is 0.7%. This is better than the median of 1.4% among the lifetime records of senators currently serving. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses and major life events.

Show the numbers...

Primary Sources

The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including: