72-year-old US Senator Mitch McConnell Victory Speech - Midterms 2014
- Duration: 10:58
- Updated: 05 Nov 2014
"I will not let you down ," McConnell said. "You will be heard in Washington.". Mitch McConnell re-elected. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on re-election: 'Every election is a job interview ... I shared my vision with you, you shared your stories and concerns with me'
With Easy Victory, McConnell’s Goal Is Within Reach.
(NYTimes) LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Mitch McConnell, the taciturn leader of the Senate Republicans who overcame childhood polio and decades of political conflagrations to become the longest-serving senator in Kentucky’s history, cruised to re-election Tuesday night, the penultimate step toward fulfilling his decades-long dream of becoming majority leader of his chamber.
Minutes after the last polls closed, The Associated Press projected Mr. McConnell as the winner. In capturing a sixth term, he turned back Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Democrat whose campaign as the anti-obstructionist, fueled by the intense passion and giant cash infusions from her party, failed to ever really catch fire.
Although Mr. McConnell’s victory seemed all but assured in recent days, he began his campaign last year as one of the most endangered incumbents, entering the race with an approval rating in the state even worse than President Obama’s.
Conservative Republicans, suspicious of Mr. McConnell’s long tenure and willingness to work quietly with Democrats, put the senator in their cross hairs, and went searching for a primary challenger.
Their pick was Matt Bevin, a businessman whose snappy rhetoric and toothpaste-commercial smile helped draw large crowds and early excitement within the state’s Republican base.
But Mr. McConnell, 72, lived up to his reputation as a seasoned, often brutal campaigner.
To inoculate himself from the Tea Party attacks, he hired key campaign staff members from his fellow Kentucky senator, Rand Paul. Once Mr. Paul’s nemesis, Mr. McConnell quickly changed course and began supporting the junior senator by voting for his bills and giving him good assignments in the Senate.
Mr. McConnell easily won the Republican primary in May.
In Mr. McConnell, Democrats saw a different sort of prey, trying to depict him as the face of Republican obstruction in Washington. Democrats were initially animated by the prospect of pitting him against a female candidate at a time when Republicans were being criticized for their treatment of women.
But Ms. Grimes also proved her own worst enemy at times, especially when she refused to say whether or not she had voted for Mr. Obama in a state where the president is deeply unpopular.
Further, few candidates know every political nook and cranny of their state like Mr. McConnell. “He has taken it very seriously,” said Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, a vice chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “He has really been involved and engaged with Kentucky politics inside and out, and he is extremely knowledgeable about the state.”
No matter the exact balance of the Senate, Mr. McConnell will have to manage difficult political cross currents in his conference. No fewer than three Republican senators who have their eye on the White House will be inclined to pull their colleagues to the right to appeal to the conservative voters who form the party’s base.
At the same, more than a half-dozen Republicans will be up for election in blue or purple states, and will be inclined to cling to the center.
Mr. McConnell — who graduated with honors from the University of Louisville, where he served as student body president — worked as both an aide on Capitol Hill and as deputy assistant attorney general to President Gerald Ford, before his election to the Senate in 1984. He was the only Republican challenger that year to defeat a Democrat incumbent.
As a student leader, he marched for civil rights in 1964 and often took positions early in his political career that were pro-union, at a time when unions had more clout in Kentucky.
But in recent years, Mr. McConnell has been tugged to the right, forced to give up his beloved earmarks that helped his home state but ran afoul of the Tea Party and other conservative colleagues.
http://wn.com/72-year-old_US_Senator_Mitch_McConnell_Victory_Speech_-_Midterms_2014
"I will not let you down ," McConnell said. "You will be heard in Washington.". Mitch McConnell re-elected. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on re-election: 'Every election is a job interview ... I shared my vision with you, you shared your stories and concerns with me'
With Easy Victory, McConnell’s Goal Is Within Reach.
(NYTimes) LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Mitch McConnell, the taciturn leader of the Senate Republicans who overcame childhood polio and decades of political conflagrations to become the longest-serving senator in Kentucky’s history, cruised to re-election Tuesday night, the penultimate step toward fulfilling his decades-long dream of becoming majority leader of his chamber.
Minutes after the last polls closed, The Associated Press projected Mr. McConnell as the winner. In capturing a sixth term, he turned back Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Democrat whose campaign as the anti-obstructionist, fueled by the intense passion and giant cash infusions from her party, failed to ever really catch fire.
Although Mr. McConnell’s victory seemed all but assured in recent days, he began his campaign last year as one of the most endangered incumbents, entering the race with an approval rating in the state even worse than President Obama’s.
Conservative Republicans, suspicious of Mr. McConnell’s long tenure and willingness to work quietly with Democrats, put the senator in their cross hairs, and went searching for a primary challenger.
Their pick was Matt Bevin, a businessman whose snappy rhetoric and toothpaste-commercial smile helped draw large crowds and early excitement within the state’s Republican base.
But Mr. McConnell, 72, lived up to his reputation as a seasoned, often brutal campaigner.
To inoculate himself from the Tea Party attacks, he hired key campaign staff members from his fellow Kentucky senator, Rand Paul. Once Mr. Paul’s nemesis, Mr. McConnell quickly changed course and began supporting the junior senator by voting for his bills and giving him good assignments in the Senate.
Mr. McConnell easily won the Republican primary in May.
In Mr. McConnell, Democrats saw a different sort of prey, trying to depict him as the face of Republican obstruction in Washington. Democrats were initially animated by the prospect of pitting him against a female candidate at a time when Republicans were being criticized for their treatment of women.
But Ms. Grimes also proved her own worst enemy at times, especially when she refused to say whether or not she had voted for Mr. Obama in a state where the president is deeply unpopular.
Further, few candidates know every political nook and cranny of their state like Mr. McConnell. “He has taken it very seriously,” said Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, a vice chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “He has really been involved and engaged with Kentucky politics inside and out, and he is extremely knowledgeable about the state.”
No matter the exact balance of the Senate, Mr. McConnell will have to manage difficult political cross currents in his conference. No fewer than three Republican senators who have their eye on the White House will be inclined to pull their colleagues to the right to appeal to the conservative voters who form the party’s base.
At the same, more than a half-dozen Republicans will be up for election in blue or purple states, and will be inclined to cling to the center.
Mr. McConnell — who graduated with honors from the University of Louisville, where he served as student body president — worked as both an aide on Capitol Hill and as deputy assistant attorney general to President Gerald Ford, before his election to the Senate in 1984. He was the only Republican challenger that year to defeat a Democrat incumbent.
As a student leader, he marched for civil rights in 1964 and often took positions early in his political career that were pro-union, at a time when unions had more clout in Kentucky.
But in recent years, Mr. McConnell has been tugged to the right, forced to give up his beloved earmarks that helped his home state but ran afoul of the Tea Party and other conservative colleagues.
- published: 05 Nov 2014
- views: 37