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 Sen. John Sherman Cooper, later as an assistant to Sen. Marlow Cook, and was a Deputy Assistant Attorney General under President Gerald R. Ford Jr.. 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 Jan. 2, 1985, being the only Republican to defeat a Democratic incumbent in 1984. 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 Nov. 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

• U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations (Senior Member)
  • U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Foreign Operations Appropriations (Chairman)
• U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry (Senior Member)
• U.S. Senate Committee on Rules (Senior Member)