McConnell's first wife, Sherrill Redmon, wipes away lipstick after she gave her husband a congratulatory kiss in November 1977. He had just won a race to be the judge-executive in Jefferson County, Kentucky. He served in that role until 1985.
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McConnell talks with children as he tours the Minor Lane Heights area of Jefferson County in June 1979. He was joined on the tour by his 6-year-old daughter, Elly, seen at left.
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McConnell celebrates after he defeated incumbent Walter "Dee" Huddleston for a US Senate seat in November 1984.
Adrienne Helitzer/The Courier Journal/USA Today Network
McConnell poses for a portrait in 1987.
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McConnell, left, and aides Steve Johnson, center, Mike Mitchell set up a cot in the senator's office as they prepare for another night of a Senate filibuster in February 1988. Republicans were filibustering against campaign spending legislation.
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McConnell stands with fiancée Elaine Chao just before they were married in the US Capitol chapel in February 1993. The wedding was a private ceremony attended by their families. Chao, who at the time was president of the United Way of America, would later serve as secretary of the Department of Labor under President George W. Bush, deputy secretary of the Department of Transportation under President George H.W. Bush, and secretary of the Department of Transportation under President Donald Trump.
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McConnell, left, and US Sen. Richard Bryan stand behind volumes detailing the Senate Ethics Committee's investigation of Sen. Bob Packwood in September 1995. The committee recommended that Packwood be expelled from Congress because of sexual and official misconduct. Ten women had accused him of sexual harassment. At the urging of even his closest colleagues, Packwood resigned.
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From left, McConnell and fellow Sens. Pete Domenici and Dianne Feinstein appear on CBS' "Face the Nation" in January 1999.
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McConnell and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison walk in a Capitol hallway during the Senate impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton in February 1999.
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McConnell stands near a map of Cambodia made with the skulls of Khmer Rouge victims during his visit to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in March 1999. McConnell had met with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and said that US aid would be at risk if a trial of Khmer Rouge leaders did not measure up to international standards.
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McConnell, right, is given a personal tour of a gaseous diffusion plant near Paducah, Kentucky, in August 1999. The plant produced enriched uranium until 2013.
Seth Dixon/The Paducah Sun/AP
McConnell, right, and US Sen. Chris Dodd drive ceremonial first nails into an inauguration platform at the US Capitol in December 2000.
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Vice President Dick Cheney jokes with McConnell and his wife, Elaine Chao, at his swearing-in reenactment in January 2003.
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McConnell walks outside the Supreme Court in September 2003. McConnell was a survivor of polio as a child and has long walked with a slight limp.
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McConnell, right, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, left, meet with Supreme Court nominee John Roberts at the US Capitol in July 2005. McConnell at the time was Senate Republican Whip. He would replace Frist as GOP leader in 2007.
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McConnell sits in his office during an interview in November 2006.
Doug Mills/The New York Times/Redux
McConnell, left, walks off Air Force One with President George W. Bush after arriving in Louisville, Kentucky, in March 2007.
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McConnell and Chao greet supporters after learning that he had won reelection in November 2008.
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McConnell, second from left, attends an Oval Office meeting about an impending Supreme Court vacancy in May 2009. From left are US Sen. Jeff Sessions, McConnell, Vice President Joe Biden, President Barack Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and US Sen. Patrick Leahy. McConnell boldly blocked Merrick Garland, Obama's choice for the Supreme Court, and later worked to install Trump's pick Neil Gorsuch instead.
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McConnell holds an empty binder strap while speaking about health-care reform on Capitol Hill in December 2009. McConnell and Sen. John McCain said that Republicans senators would do everything they could to delay passage of any health-care legislation.
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McConnell speaks to a NATO training mission adviser as he visits a military training cernter in Kabul, Afghanistan, in January 2011.
Ho New/Reuters
McConnell and Sen. Roy Blount walk to a Senate vote in April 2012.
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McConnell speaks with a US Capitol tour group from Beechwood, Kentucky, in October 2013.
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McConnell carries a musket on stage as he speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference in March 2014.
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McConnell hugs Betty Lou Weddle, 82, after speaking to a small audience in Liberty, Kentucky, in May 2014.
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McConnell eats at Morris' Deli, his regular lunch spot in Louisville, in August 2014.
Jeff Brown
McConnell, left, sits across the aisle from Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid before a joint session of Congress in March 2015.
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In August 2015, McConnell holds up a selfie photo that he took with Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear, left, the year before. McConnell reminded Beshear that he falsely predicted that McConnell would lose his Senate race and retire. McConnell signed the photo for Beshear, who was term-limited and would be leaving office before him.
Sam Upshaw Jr./The Courier Journal/USA Today Network
McConnell walks with President-elect Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, after a meeting at the Capitol in November 2016.
Molly Riley/AP
McConnell leaves the Senate chamber in September 2018 after the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced Brett Kavanaugh's nomination for the Supreme Court.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
McConnell holds his notes as he listens to a question from a reporter in October 2019.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
McConnell and Trump shake hands at a campaign rally in Lexington, Kentucky, in November 2019.
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McConnell, left, rides the Senate subway between meetings in July 2020.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
McConnell, right, walks past armed police at the US Capitol after the riot on January 6, 2021.
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House impeachment managers watch McConnell speak in February 2021 after the Senate voted to acquit Trump in his second impeachment trial. McConnell voted not guilty, saying he didn't think the Senate had the "power to convict and disqualify a former office holder who is now a private citizen." But he still put blame on Trump. "There's no question — none — that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day," McConnell said. "No question about it. The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president."
Erin Schaff/The New York Times/Redux
McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy speak to reporters outside the White House after meeting with President Joe Biden in May 2021.
Evan Vucci/AP
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, left, greets McConnell and other US senators who were visiting Ukraine in May 2022.
Ukrainian Presidential Press Service
McConnell speaks to reporters at the Capitol after meeting with Biden and congressional leaders at the White House in November 2022.
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McConnell and Biden shake hands in Covington, Kentucky, after speaking about Biden's infrastructure agenda under the Clay Wade Bailey Bridge in January 2023.
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US Sen. John Barrasso reaches out to help McConnell after McConnell froze and stopped talking during a news conference at the Capitol in July 2023. McConnell was led away from the news conference and toward his office by an aide. He returned a few minutes later and continued.
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