Mitch McConnell becomes Senate's longest-serving party leader

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WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell became the longest-serving party leader Tuesday, the opening day of the 118th Congress.

The Kentucky Republican surpassed the late Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield, D-Mont., who led the Senate from 1961 to 1977. McConnell said serving Kentucky is the greatest honor of his career but the second greatest honor is the trust his fellow Republicans have placed in him to lead "our diverse conference."

"Designated party floor leaders have been a feature of the Senate for more than 100 years, and no two have done the job exactly alike," he said in a speech on the Senate floor. He described the leadership styles of past leaders, particularly Mansfield who called a "quintessential Senate character."

Some leaders rose to the job through "lower-key, behind-the-scenes styles, and that is how Sen. Michael Joseph Mansfield of Montana became the longest-serving Senate leader in American history until today," McConnell said.

McConnell, who turns 81 next month, ascended to Republican leadership in 2007. He easily fended off a challenge from Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., after the 2022 election to maintain his position as leader.

First elected in 1984, McConnell is now in his seventh term. He has served as Senate minority leader since 2021 and previously from 2007 to 2015. He also served as Senate majority leader from 2015 to 2021.

McConnell has become one of the most consequential political figures in American history, according to an opinion piece by Scott Jennings for CNN. His longevity and deal-making abilities draw comparisons to his idol, Henry Clay, a fellow Kentuckian who served as U.S. senator, House speaker and secretary of state.

"McConnell has never had it easy," wrote Jennings, a former special assistant to President George W. Bush and a former campaign adviser to McConnell.

"Of his 16 years as Republican leader, two came under a lame-duck Bush, four under an erratic Trump and the rest under Democratic Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden. He never had more than 54 Republicans (and as few as 40) during his tenure, while the previous record-holder Mansfield never had fewer than 54 Democrats and usually had well over 60, the Senate's magic number to establish complete political power."

Jennings wrote that McConnell's accomplishments have come with thin margins and often from a politically weak position. He achieves gains for his party where he can (the most recent omnibus spending bill scored massive increases in defense spending, for instance) but never lets his partisanship or ideology outweigh his governing responsibilities.

"His operating protocol is to achieve the most conservative legislative outcome within the given circumstances, a strategy that has smashed headlong into the strident revolutionaries in his party who prefer no outcomes beyond scoring the next cable TV booking," Jennings wrote.

"McConnell elicits hatred from his political opponents because they rarely can get the best of him."

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., acknowledged McConnell's longevity in his opening speech Tuesday. Schumer also noted that with his own reelection last fall, he is now the longest-serving Senator from New York. He is starting his fifth term. He has been the Senate majority leader since January 2021.