Summary

Mitchell McConnell was born in 1942 and is currently serving as Kentucky’s senior United States Senator and as Senate Majority Leader. Senator McConnell’s seat is up for election in 2020.

Mitch McConnell is the Senate Majority Leader. Elected to that position unanimously by his Republican colleagues first in 2014 and again in 2016 and 2018, he is also the longest-serving Republican U.S. Senate leader in history. Senator McConnell previously served in leadership as the Majority Whip in the 108th and 109th Congresses and as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee during the 1998 and 2000 election cycles. He was first elected the U.S. Senate in 1984 and has been reelected since.

Senator McConnell is currently serving on the Appropriations Committee; the Rules and Administration Committee; and the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee.

Below is Senator McConnell’s voting record and public positions on issues important to the Jewish Community .

Senator McConnell opposed the Iran nuclear deal and supported the move of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. Senator McConnell cosponsored legislation objecting the UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which claimed that Israel’s settlements have no legal validity. He opposes the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement and cosponsored the Israel Anti-Boycott Act and the Combating BDS Act of 2017, two bills that aim to fight discriminatory boycotts that target Israel.

Senator McConnell supported the United States-Israel Security Assistance Authorization Act, a legislation that supported full funding of security assistance to Israel as outlined in the 2016 U.S.-Israel Memorandum of Understanding.

In 2019, Senator McConnell was one of the original cosponsors of the Strengthening America’s Middle East Security Act which, among other things, strengthened Israel’s security and allowed a state or local government to adopt measures to divest its assets from entities that boycott Israel.