What’s a Senator to do with time and seniority? Mitch McConnell will show us. | Opinion

Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, leader of his party’s conference since 2007, shook the political earth Wednesday by announcing that this year would be his last atop the Senate GOP. He’s the longest serving leader of either party in US Senate history, on top so long that it’s hard to remember a time when he wasn’t.

When McConnell exits Senate leadership next January, he’ll have two years remaining beyond that on his current term in office. What’s a Senator with forty years of experience to do with all that time on his hands?

McConnell’s floor remarks left some clues about what we can expect from McConnell the senior statesman, blessed with seniority in a chamber organized on the precious currency of longevity.

Carrying Reagan’s torch. Being a party leader has its ups and downs. And one of the downs is not being able to speak freely on certain issues or spend your time on pet policy projects. Come next January, McConnell will no longer have to bite his tongue.

McConnell has increasingly become the heir to Reagan’s legacy of projecting American hard and soft power whenever and wherever possible, as new Trump-era Senators have reflected a more isolationist worldview. The current flashpoint is over funding for the war in Ukraine, where McConnell has pushed for faster action and more money to defeat the Russians.

But there are more debates to come on the larger issues of military spending, foreign aid, and when and how America will involve itself in world events. And McConnell, instead of trying to hold together a badly divided conference, will now be free to fully lead the “Reagan faction” of Senators that sees America as a force for good in the world.

McConnell is a longtime member of the Appropriations Committee, and his seniority guarantees platinum status in the group that decides how much we spend on, well, everything. But most importantly, I suspect that McConnell will make the late Arizona Senator John McCain—famously hawkish until the end—look like a dove by the time he finishes replenishing and expanding America’s arsenals.

As he said on the Senate floor, “For as long as I am drawing breath on this earth, I will defend American exceptionalism.”

Amen.

More conservatives still to the federal judiciary. A hallmark of McConnell’s term as Senate GOP leader was focusing the party on nominating and confirming conservative judges, including three Supreme Court Justices under former President Donald Trump.

If Trump wins the presidency and the GOP a new Senate majority, I expect McConnell to play a key role in restarting the pipeline of conservative judges to the federal bench. You never know when another Supreme Court vacancy will occur, and McConnell’s tactical experience will prove invaluable to his successor.

Cold Kentucky rain. While McConnell has become a national figure over the last 17 years, he’s never lost site of his primary job – to represent and deliver for the people of Kentucky. As a senior appropriator with more time on his hands, for at least two more years Kentucky should benefit even more than usual from McConnell’s position.

Once McConnell and Rep. Hal Rogers (R, KY-05) are gone, Kentucky will learn a hard lesson in what it means to cease punching above your weight on appropriations. Thankfully, both will be around at least a few more years to deliver for a state that, if not but for their presence, would be far less influential in recovering Kentucky’s chunk of the federal largesse.

“I will finish the job the people of Kentucky hired me to do as well — albeit from a different seat in the chamber. I am looking forward to that,” McConnell said on the Senate floor.

While Wednesday was a bittersweet day for “Team Mitch,” there is a genuine curiosity and even some excitement in his inner circle about what he’ll do when re-released into the wild, free from the shackles that come with leading a legislative conference. A two-year Mitch-a-palooza could help this old school senator put a fascinating final chapter on a legendary career.

Scott Jennings is a Senior CNN Political Commentator and Partner at RunSwitch Public Relations. He has been friends with Mitch McConnell for 28 years and served in senior positions in several of his reelection efforts. He’s a graduate of the McConnell Center at the University of Louisville.

This story was originally published February 29, 2024 at 9:25 AM.