Earlier this month, Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell announced retirement from his post as Senate Republican Leader. He plans to remain in the role until November… and he just endorsed another leader seeking another office at around the same time.
McConnell endorsed Donald Trump’s presidential campaign Wednesday.
The Kentucky Republican made the announcement in a statement obtained by the Associated Press.
“It is abundantly clear that former President Trump has earned the requisite support of Republican voters to be our nominee for President of the United States,” McConnell said in the statement following Trump’s string of victories in the Super Tuesday primaries.
“It should come as no surprise that as nominee, he will have my support.”
McConnell reportedly hasn’t spoken to Trump since the 2020 election. A month afterward, McConnell gave a floor speech denouncing Trump as “practically and morally responsible” for the Capitol riot of Jan. 6, although he later voted against removing Trump from office.
However, McConnell’s representatives had recently talked with Trump’s campaign about a possible endorsement.
In the statement, McConnell recalled that “worked together to accomplish great things for the American people.”
He commended Trump for working with the Senate on actions that “supercharged our economy and a generational change of our federal judiciary — most importantly, the Supreme Court.”
McConnell’s endorsement is more a reunion than a surprise. After all, the Senate leader said during the early days of Trump’s campaign that he’d support the GOP’s eventual nominee.
Trump has won other endorsements since Nikki Haley’s Wednesday decision to suspend her presidential campaign. After Haley’s announcement, Trump earned an endorsement from Iowa’s Joni Ernst, the fourth-most powerful Republican in the U.S. Senate.
The Horn editorial team