McConnell becomes longest serving Senate leader

Democrats are again claiming the Senate majority, but much of the chamber’s focus is on the top Republican as Mitch McConnell becomes the longest serving Senate leader in history.

McConnell, 80, surpassed Montana Sen. Mike Mansfield’s record of 16 years as party leader when the Senate convened midday Tuesday to begin the new Congress. While the Kentucky Republican has acknowledged he would prefer his own party to be taking charge — “the majority is better,” he says frequently — he’s celebrating his own personal milestone with a Senate floor speech looking back at party leaders and their different styles over the decades.

And Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., cements a legacy of his own after winning a second term as leader and also being sworn in as the longest-serving senator from New York. Democrats will go into the new Congress with a 51-49 majority, with newly Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema receiving her committee assignments from Democrats.

The celebratory Senate proceedings were in marked contrast to the new Republican House majority across the Capitol, where Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy is fighting to become speaker amid contentious internal strife in his own party. McConnell, his party’s leader since 2007, easily dismissed a similar challenge from within after the November midterms, and, like Schumer, begins the new year with strong support from his caucus. Praising the tenure of Mansfield, a Democrat who led his party in the Senate after Democrat Lyndon Johnson resigned to become vice president in 1961 and served until 1977, the ever-restrained McConnell hinted in his speech at his own long-term strategy — a contrast to the bombast and chaos across the Capitol.

“There’ve been leaders who rose to the job through lower-key, behind-the-scenes styles; who preferred to focus on serving their colleagues rather than dominating them,” McConnell said, and that “is how Senator Michael Joseph Mansfield of Montana became the longest-serving Senate leader in American history until this morning.”

Like President Joe Biden, both Schumer and McConnell are opening the year pledging to work across the aisle — and all three will have to find ways to work with the new GOP House majority to keep government running. McConnell will make a rare appearance with Biden in his home state of Kentucky this week to highlight nearly $1 trillion in infrastructure spending that lawmakers approved on a bipartisan basis in 2021.

Claiming his party’s majority after senators were sworn in, Schumer said that party differences “do not absolve either either side of the need to work together when the good of the country is on the line.” “If both sides are willing to give it a good faith effort, I’m optimistic we can be successful, far more successful than many might think,” Schumer said.

Also Tuesday, the Senate swore in seven new members, five Republicans and two Democrats. Unlike the House, where the swearing in was overshadowed by the antagonistic fight over the speaker’s chair, the mood was jovial in the Senate. Family, friends and predecessors looked on as those freshman, along with their new colleagues who won re-election, took an oath of office administered by Vice President Kamala Harris.

Senators clapped as Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat and Iraq War veteran who lost both legs when her helicopter was shot down in 2004, walked down the center aisle of the Senate to be sworn in instead of using her wheelchair, leaning on her Illinois colleague, Sen. Dick Durbin, for support. Former Republican Sen. Frank Murkowski of Alaska accompanied his daughter, newly re-elected Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, and hugged her after she took her oath. Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, stood behind newly elected Republican Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, a rare show of bipartisanship on swearing-in day.  John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, is the only new member who flipped party control of his seat, having won an open seat held by retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey. The other six new senators are all replacing members of the same party.

New Republican senators are Ted Budd of North Carolina, Katie Britt of Alabama, Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, Eric Schmitt of Missouri and Vance of Ohio. Vermont’s Peter Welch is the only other new Democrat, replacing Sen. Patrick Leahy, who is retiring after almost five decades in the seat. Washington Sen. Patty Murray made her own history, replacing Leahy as the first woman Senate pro tempore. That position is held by the senior-most member of the majority party and is third in line to the presidency.

Associated Press