The Senate will look different in 2025. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has led the chamber’s Republicans for nearly a generation. Now he’s stepping down from leadership after a record-setting run — and leaving a divisive legacy that will be debated for years to come.
McConnell used his power to “shift the country to the right during his 17-year tenure” as leader, Alex Rogers said at Financial Times. He blocked Merrick Garland’s nomination to the Supreme Court during Barack Obama’s presidency, paving the way for conservatives to cement a 6-3 supermajority on the court that ultimately overturned Roe v. Wade. He also pulled back from voting on Donald Trump’s impeachment after the Jan. 6 attack. That’s “characteristic” of McConnell’s politics, Rogers said. “He prizes GOP power above almost all other considerations.”
Preferring ‘pragmatic Reaganism’
His is a “lamentable legacy,” Cornell University’s Glenn C. Altschuler said at The Hill. As GOP leader, McConnell was a key figure in passing bipartisan legislation, including bank bailouts during the Great Recession, military aid to Ukraine and Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill. But McConnell also did “considerable damage to democratic norms, practices and institutions” in Washington — notably helping clear the way for massive campaign spending by billionaires and special interests. McConnell’s refusal to endorse Trump’s impeachment, though, stands alone as a “catastrophic miscalculation,” Altschuler said.
McConnell’s legacy is “pleasing to conservatives,” Kevin R. Kosar said at The Washington Examiner. But the GOP leader “struggled with the rise of populism in his party,” preferring “pragmatic Reaganism” instead. He never liked Trump, and the feeling was mutual. That dislike came to a head during the Jan. 6 insurrection, as the Capitol attack “appalled McConnell,” Kosar said. But McConnell ultimately felt he couldn’t break with “Trump’s millions of fervid supporters” and refused to join the impeachment. McConnell “hoped Trump would fade away.” That didn’t happen.
“In some ways, McConnell’s political career is impressive,” Malcom Kyeyune said at UnHerd. He is the longest-serving party leader in Senate history, after all. But he remains unpopular with Americans broadly, and his own party seems to have moved on. The bigger problem is that McConnell’s generation of politicians — including Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden — “essentially calcified American politics,” holding onto power long past the moment when it was time to move on. That helped make the system “immune to reform,” Kyeyune said. The result is a “broken Senate.”
‘Ready to pick fights’
McConnell will remain in the Senate even though he’s leaving leadership. He is “ready to pick his own fights,” said The New York Times — and perhaps even more ready to scrap with Trump. McConnell said he is “liberated” from having to keep GOP senators together, and can now strike out on his own more often. He seems particularly inclined to combat Trump’s willingness to pull America back from NATO and the defense of Ukraine. “America’s national security interests face the gravest array of threats since the Second World War,” McConnell said in a recent speech.
His colleagues expect McConnell to play a compelling role going forward. “He’ll always be having a role of sage,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.). “And he won’t do it passively — he will pick a few things.”