Kentucky keeps 'Grim Reaper' Mitch McConnell in the Senate

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has won a seventh term, according to an Associated Press projection, defeating Democrat Amy McGrath. Kentucky voters kept the Republican despite his historic record of obstruction.

It is unclear whether he will remain Senate Majority Leader, as control of the U.S. Senate has not been determined yet. McConnell put the odds of a GOP majority at “50-50” last week.

McConnell has spent much of the past two years blocking popular House-passed legislation from coming up in the Senate and pushing to confirm Donald Trump’s conservative judges to lifetime appointments.

He dubbed himself the “Grim Reaper” who made the Senate a legislative graveyard for progressive legislation. As the Democratic-controlled House passed voting rights, LGBTQ protections, paycheck fairness, universal background checks for gun sales, climate action, Violence Against Women Act reauthorization, a minimum wage increase, and protections for undocumented kids, he refused to bring them up for a vote.

In February, McConnell admitted that he had no intention of bringing up the roughly 400 pieces of legislation pending from the House.

Last week, McConnell sent home the Senate without any action on coronavirus pandemic relief and has said he does not intend to bring up any new emergency spending for the rest of this Congress. He bragged in August that waiting months to even consider relief was “the reasonable thing to do” because it “allowed us to learn the coronavirus didn’t mysteriously disappear.”

McConnell was first elected to the Senate in 1984.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.