Topline
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., endorsed former President Donald Trump on Wednesday after the former president dominated the polls on Super Tuesday, multiple news outlets reported—a dramatic turnaround after McConnell once condemned Trump for the Jan. 6 riot and Trump called him an “old crow.”
The Senate Minority Leader praised the president’s work during his first term.
Key Facts
In a statement provided to the Washington Post, McConnell said it was “abundantly clear that former President Trump has earned the requisite support of Republican voters to be our nominee.”
McConnell, who has frequently clashed with the former president in the past, praised his work during his first term on tax reform and reshaping the federal judiciary and Supreme Court.
McConnell has reportedly not spoken to Trump for years, and blamed the former president for Republicans’ poor showing in the 2022 midterm elections.
Before Wednesday, he was one of only 17 Republican senators who had not endorsed Trump as he consolidated his grip on the nomination.
Trump thanked McConnell for the endorsement in a brief post on Truth Social, adding, “I look forward to working with you and a Republican Senate MAJORITY.”
Key Background
McConnell, 82, is the longest-serving party leader in the Senate’s history and the longest serving senator from Kentucky. After 17 years at the helm of his party, McConnell announced his retirement from GOP leadership last week. Two senators have since announced they would run for McConnell’s former position when it becomes open in November—John Thune, R-S.D., and John Cornyn, R-Texas. Both senators have also endorsed Trump.
Chief Critic
Although McConnell worked with Trump during his first term in office, their relationship broke down after the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, which McConnell condemned as “disgraceful.” The Kenutcky senator said Trump was “practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day.” McConnell refused to vote to convict Trump after he was impeached by the House in 2021 for his role in the riots, but warned that he was still beholden to the criminal justice system after leaving office.
New Peg
McConnell’s endorsement comes after Trump won 14 out of 15 Republican primary elections on Super Tuesday. Trump pulled far ahead of former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, his last remaining rival for the nomination, who has only won primaries in Vermont and Washington, D.C. Haley suspended her campaign on Wednesday morning and congratulated the former president, but did not offer an endorsement. “It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support him,” Haley said in a speech on Wednesday. “And I hope he does that.”
Big Number
995. That’s how many delegates to the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee Trump has secured so far, only 220 short of the 1,215 needed to clinch the nomination. Trump could secure the nomination as soon as March 12, when primaries will take place in Georgia, Mississippi, Hawaii and Washington.