Mitch McConnell, LGBTQ+ rights opponent, to step down from Senate Republican leadership

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell will step down from Senate leadership in November, having served in that capacity longer than any senator in history.

“One of life’s most underappreciated talents is to know when it’s time to move on to life’s next chapter,” the Kentuckian said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “So I stand before you today ... to say that this will be my last term as Republican leader of the Senate.”

McConnell has been a senator since 1985 and has been either majority or minority leader since 2007. He said he would serve out his Senate term, which ends in 2027, “albeit from a different seat in the chamber.”

McConnell has a poor record on LGBTQ+ rights, with mostly zeroes on the Human Rights Campaign’s Congressional Scorecard. He has voted against the Respect for Marriage Act, the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell," and hate-crimes legislation. He has also used his leadership position to block much progressive legislation — preventing the Equality Act from coming to a Senate vote, for instance.

McConnell helped reshape the Supreme Court In 2016, as majority leader, he refused to let the Senate consider President Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the high court to fill the vacancy left by Justice Antonin Scalia’s death. It was the last year of Obama’s presidency, and McConnell said the position should be left open for the next president to fill. When Donald Trump became president the following year, he nominated conservative Neil Gorsuch, who was confirmed by the Senate.

But then in 2020, at the end of Trump’s first term, he allowed the Senate to vote on the president’s nomination of Amy Coney Barrett, another conservative, to succeed the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg. McConnell had pushed for Coney Barrett’s nomination, and the Senate confirmed her. With another Trump justice, Brett Kavanaugh, that gave the court a 6-3 conservative majority, leading to the overturning of abortion rights decision Roe v. Wadein 2022.

McConnell has sometimes clashed with Trump, however, including his refusal to accept Trump’s lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him by Joe Biden. But the senator has been in negotiations to endorse Trump in this year’s election.

McConnell, 82, has had some health challenges, including a concussion from a fall and incidents of freezing up while speaking. But aides said his decision to step down from leadership was not related to his health.

HRC President Kelley Robinson had this to say about McConnell: "Mitch McConnell's departure won't erase the havoc he wreaked on our democracy. From stacking the court to enabling Trump's antics, he's left our nation and our democracy in grave danger. We need leaders who won't undermine our values and will fight to restore what's been lost."

Story developing...