FRANKFORT — A top GOP leader is calling for a statue of longtime Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell to be added to the Kentucky Capitol rotunda.
Senate President Robert Stivers, of Manchester, said Thursday that he planned to file a resolution to request the Historic Properties Advisory Commission consider adding McConnell’s statue to the rotunda.
McConnell, 84, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1984 and became the longest serving Senate leader in U.S. after leading the GOP caucus for nearly two decades. He announced last year that he would not seek reelection to another term.
Stivers emphasized that his resolution “does not carry the force of law” but he filed it to “start the discussion” about adding the statue.
“I do this because there’s not been anybody more influential in the last century or this century in the state of Kentucky — or maybe in the history of the state of Kentucky — as Sen. McConnell has been,” Stivers said. “People won’t understand the influence that he has had probably until long after he has been gone, except maybe for people who watch politics and are involved in political situations like we are.”
The Kentucky Capitol closed last summer as a nearly $300 million renovation began. It’s expected to take several years.
In 2024, the General Assembly gave itself final say over permanent displays in the rotunda — a prominent central area of the building that includes statues of four Kentuckians, including former Republican President Abraham Lincoln. The law says the legislature must approve the installation or removal of any statue after the commission submits a proposal.
That state law came after a statue of Kentucky-born Jefferson Davis, the only president of the Confederate States of America, was removed in 2020 after Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear requested the commission remove it, and it voted to do so.
A spokesperson for McConnell did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday.
The idea of putting a statue of Kentucky’s senior senator in the rotunda has been publicly floated before. Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Barr suggested it during a 2024 groundbreaking ceremony on the Republican Party of Kentucky’s headquarters, which is named after McConnell.
This article is republished under a Creative Commons license from Kentucky Lantern, which is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: info@kentuckylantern.com. Follow Kentucky Lantern on Facebook and Twitter.
McKenna Horsley covers state politics for the Kentucky Lantern. She previously worked for newspapers in Huntington, West Virginia, and Frankfort, Kentucky. She is from northeastern Kentucky.
