MAJOR UPDATE: I’m putting this at the top since it seems to disprove the story below. McConnell posted on Twitter a little while ago that he does intend to come back to the Senate and get back to work:
I am looking forward to returning to the Senate on Monday. We've got important business to tackle and big fights to win for Kentuckians and the American people.
— Leader McConnell (@LeaderMcConnell) April 13, 2023
This is obviously a response to the article even though he doesn’t mention it. He clearly wants to put this rumor to bed that he’s gonna retire.
Over a month ago Mitch McConnell fell at a Senate Leadership Fund dinner event and was rushed to the hospital. It was soon learned that he was being treated for a concussion and would spend a few days hospitalized.
We haven’t seen him since then and now we’re learning that top Republicans in the Senate are preparing for McConnell to announcement his retirement.
Here’s more from the Spectator:
Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell has been out of the public eye for weeks, following a serious fall that hospitalized him. Now multiple sources confirm that Senators John Barrasso of North Dakota, John Cornyn of Texas and John Thune of South Dakota are actively reaching out to fellow Republican senators in efforts to prepare for an anticipated leadership vote — a vote that would occur upon announcement that McConnell would be retiring from his duties as leader, and presumably the Senate itself.
One source says that Cornyn has been particularly active in his preparations, taking fellow senators with whom he has little in common to lunch in attempts to court them.
Requests are being targeted at a plethora of conservative senators, including the sixteen who voted to delay the leadership election earlier this year, a proxy for opposition to McConnell’s leadership. Rick Scott, the Florida senator and former NRSC head who challenged McConnell, ultimately received ten protest votes. These members could prove key to determining the next Republican leader. Queries are also being made internally about the rules regarding replacement, and how the contest would be structured given the lack of an obvious heir apparent.
So many have been loyal to McConnell for years that I’m not sure who would be elected to replace him. Clearly his potential retirement would be a huge opportunity and would give conservatives hope that they could get one of their own elected as the Republican leader.
But I wouldn’t hold my breath for such an outcome. As we’ve seen time and time again, weak Republicans are typically the ones who get elected to positions of leadership. Which is why we saw so many in the House force McCarthy to make significant concessions before he was finally elected to be Speaker.
This is the current Republican leadership in the Senate and if I were a betting man, I’d put money on one of these becoming the next leader:
