Mitch McConnell (born February 20, 1942) is a member of the United States Senate, and is the Majority Whip of that body. He is a Republican senator from Kentucky.

Biography

Raised in South Louisville, Kentucky, McConnell graduated from the University of Louisville College of Arts and Sciences in 1964, and graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Law in 1967. He gained experience on Capitol Hill as an intern under Senator John Sherman Cooper, later as an assistant to Senator Marlow Cook, and was a Deputy Assistant Attorney General under President Gerald R. Ford. From 1978 to his election into the Senate, he worked as a County Judge-Executive in Jefferson County, Kentucky.

McConnell was elected in his home state of Kentucky, and sworn in on January 2, 1985, being the only Republican to defeat a Democratic incumbent that year. He has been reelected three times, and is a solid incumbent in Kentucky (he was reelected in 2002 with the most solid majority by a Republican candidate in the history of that state). On November 12 of that year, McConnell was unanimously elected as Majority Whip of the Senate. He is currently married to the Secretary of Labor, Elaine Chao.

Committees