Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear is directly asking Sen. Mitch McConnell, the state’s most powerful figure in Congress, to disclose more about his condition after three weeks of silence from the 84-year-old since he was hospitalized in Washington.
The letter released Wednesday from Beshear, a Democrat who is considered a potential presidential candidate in 2028, to the former Senate Republican leader says “Kentuckians have grown increasingly concerned about the current state of your health and well-being, and ability to hold office.”
McConnell, whose physical condition has visibly declined in recent years, was hospitalized June 14. He has not released a public statement, photos or videos since. Aides have disclosed nothing specific about his condition, other than to say last week that McConnell “continues to improve, and is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters while the Senate is out of session.”
That lack of detail has fueled rampant speculation about his prognosis and whether he will return to the Senate when it reconvenes next week. The firestorm was enough that Republican Senate leaders on Tuesday made public statements saying they had talked to McConnell and that he was alert and discussing current events.
McConnell is retiring at the end of his term in January, and the campaign to elect his successor already is underway. Kentucky’s Senate succession law, which Republican legislators have twice changed during Beshear’s tenure, does not give the governor a role in picking a temporary successor should McConnell’s seat become vacant before his term ends.
Under the latest change in 2024, if the seat becomes vacant before Aug. 3, there would be a special election to pick a replacement, perhaps held concurrently with the general election in November. The special election winner could take office nearly immediately. The general election winner would be sworn in as part of the new Congress in January.
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Why do the Republicans not want to admit he's dead? Do they think they're going to lose a senate seat in Kentucky?
Kentucky's governor is a Democrat. It's not as safe a Republican seat as you think.
Cross-party governors don't really mean a state is on the verge of flipping. It's often that they just have an easier message about criticizing and reigning in the once party establishment. Mitt Romney was the governor of Massachusetts and at no point before or after were the Senate races close. In Kentucky no Democrat has cracked 40% in recent elections and Andy Beshear was governor during them.
Because if he dies before August 4th, a special election is triggered to replace him until his term is up in January.
If after that date, then his seat simply remains vacant until his successor is elected in November and inaugurated in January.
If there is a special election, Thomas Massie could run. This is important because he could possibly split the Republican vote and get a Democrat elected, but at the very least it causes the RNC to spend resources on an election.
Massie cannot run in the general in November because he lost the Republican primary, and Kentucky has a law that says you can't run as an independent in the general if you lose your party's primary.
Its not just that, its the risk to the midterm meddling that is going on, as potentially the wrong person getting in ahead of January could now swing crucial votes either side of the midterm.
Mitch not being able to vote by cause of being dead is one vote down, the wrong person replacing him is now two votes down as they voting the other way and that makes things a lot harder.
Well that's a stupid fucking law..
It hurts us this time, but in general it actually sounds like good common sense to me, reducing one of the big flaws of first-past-the-post elections.
Just about as stupid as you'd expect from Kentucky, really 🤷🏻
For case A, is there a special election and then the regular one immediately afterwards?
Thank you, that's very informative!
The governor is a Democrat, KY may be in the swing category this year..
But it's mostly because the governor is a Democrat... I think he gets to appoint the replacement.
The article says the legislature removed the governor's role in making a replacement, though I've seen someone elsewhere say that their role in the process is in the state constitution so a regular bill curtailing it wouldn't be valid.
Pretty sure the state legislature rammed a metric shit ton of obstacles through as soon as he won the governor election.
Yeah, I read that after the fact. (my bad)
Kentucky truly is a shithole country.