Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY) refused to commit to replacing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) with another conservative this week in the event the senator resigns after freezing up twice this summer.
Beshear said he would not speculate on a replacement for the senator, including whether that replacement would come from McConnell's own party. The non-committal response comes despite a recent state law that dictates the governor has to choose one of three nominees selected by the state Republican Party, or the party of the outgoing senator.
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“There is no Senate vacancy,” Beshear told reporters on Thursday. “Sen. McConnell has said he’s going to serve out his term, and I believe him, so I’m not going to speculate about something that hasn’t happened and isn’t going to happen.”
Beshear declined to commit to replacing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Aug. 31, 2023, with a conservative senator should he resign after multiple freeze ups this summer.
The senator has frozen in front of reporters twice this summer — once on Capitol Hill in July and again in Kentucky in August. But McConnell has maintained that he will finish out his term, which ends in 2027, and he has been cleared to resume his duties in the Senate by the attending physician for Congress, Dr. Brian Monahan.
“Well, I respect Sen. McConnell and his health not — first of all, to not sensationalize it, and second, there is no vacancy," Beshear said. "So he has said he’s going to serve out his term, and I fully believe him.”
The refusal to commit brings into question whether Beshear will attempt to ignore the 2021 law, which he tried to veto. He claimed it “improperly and unconstitutionally" restricted the governor’s power to fill vacancies. His veto of the law was overridden by the state's general assembly.
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Beshear is up for reelection in the Republican-dominated state in November, fighting off a challenge from state Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump and nearly 200 law enforcement officials.
McConnell is the longest-serving Senate party leader in United States history, and the state has not had a Democratic senator since 1999.