25 to watch in 25: Mitch McConnell heads to the finish line with one ‘hard’ goal in mind
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25 to watch in 2025
The Lexington Herald-Leader is tracking 25 individuals we expect will be making news in 2025.
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Editor’s note: The Herald-Leader is profiling 25 individuals we predict will be making news in 2025.
Name: Sen. Mitch McConnell
Background: After Mitch McConnell suffered a violent fall and two public freezes in 2023, it became an open question whether the longest-serving Senate majority leader in history would still be serving in his beloved body through the 2024 election. Despite a sprained wrist from another fall in December, the 82-year-old McConnell is entering into what’s widely believed to be the capstone end of his political career. No longer majority leader, he still has two years left on his term and continues to insist he’ll finish it, regardless of the various maladies testing him and escalating calls for his retirement.
Why McConnell is someone to watch in 2025: Even though he won’t be helming the GOP caucus any longer, McConnell’s presence will still loom large inside the U.S. Capitol, especially as he carefully calculates how to react to a second Trump term. McConnell has repeatedly emphasized his priority will be American foreign policy and fighting against the GOP’s drift toward a nationalist, isolationist posture.
His slot as chairman of an appropriations subcommittee guarantees he’ll have sway over where billions of defense dollars go. The question is how far he’ll take his fight and whether it’ll cause another breach with Trump that could divide the caucus.
What McConnell says about 2025: “The United States urgently needs to reach a bipartisan consensus on the centrality of hard power to U.S. foreign policy,” McConnell declared recently, underscoring his key priority as a rank-and-file member who believes in American interventionism. “This fact must override both left-wing faith in hollow internationalism and right-wing flirtation with isolation and decline. The time to restore American hard power is now.”
What others say about McConnell: “He has gotten to the right answer in more critical positions than any United States senator in history of the Senate. So I have great confidence that Sen. McConnell will reach the right conclusion on the confirmation process,” said Robert Doar, president of the American Enterprise Institute, a prominent center-right think tank in Washington who believes McConnell will still exert discreet behind-the-curtain power with his colleagues.
“There are a lot of people in the Republican caucus who have long histories with him, who are grateful to him for his support for them over the years. ... So I definitely think he has a lot of influence on a lot of senators. He’s got a big interest in foreign affairs and protecting America’s role in the world and countering the Russians and the Chinese and the Iranians.”
This story was originally published January 29, 2025 at 10:26 AM with the headline "25 to watch in 25: Mitch McConnell heads to the finish line with one ‘hard’ goal in mind."
