FRANKFORT, Ky. — Kentucky lawmakers heaped praise Tuesday on Kentuckian Mitch McConnell as he became the U.S. Senate’s longest-serving party leader ever.
Minority Leader McConnell, 80, whose family moved to Louisville in 1956, was first elected to represent Kentucky in the U.S. Senate in 1984.
Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, and others in the Senate spoke for about 45 minutes on the chamber floor about McConnell’s accomplishments before passing a resolution in his honor.
“He knows he’s from Kentucky, he loves to do things for Kentucky and he’s now the longest serving leader of a party in United States history who is from Kentucky,” Stivers said.
On the Senate floor in Washington, McConnell said, “The greatest honor of my career is representing the commonwealth of Kentucky in this chamber and fighting for my fellow Kentuckians. But the second-greatest honor is the trust that my fellow Republican senators have placed in me to lead our diverse conference and help them achieve their goals.”
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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.
