McConnell claims a seventh Senate term

LEXINGTON, Ky. — U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell brushed off a challenge by Democrat Amy McGrath Tuesday to win his seventh term as the rest of the country anxiously awaited the results of a contentious presidential election.

McConnell’s status as majority leader remains up in the air. It’s unclear which party will win a majority in the Senate after the COVID-19 pandemic changed voting patterns across the country and could potentially delay election results in several battleground states.

In what has been a tumultuous political year, the race between McGrath and McConnell appeared almost unalterable from the beginning. McConnell maintained a steady lead over McGrath in the polls through the impeachment of President Donald Trump, through the COVID-19 pandemic and the record unemployment that followed it, through a national reckoning on race, and through the loss of a liberal icon on the Supreme Court.

McGrath, who out-raised McConnell with a record $90 million through Oct. 14, was unable to peel support away from McConnell, who has cemented himself as the most powerful Republican in a state that has steadily turned away from the Democratic Party.

McConnell, 78, benefited from overwhelming support for President Donald Trump in Kentucky, but much of his victory came from the campaign machine Kentucky’s senior senator has built over the past 36 years.

The COVID-19 pandemic touched every aspect of the campaign, from drastically limiting the candidates’ ability to interact directly with voters to changing the method most Kentuckians used to vote. By the time polls opened at 6 a.m. on Election Day, more than 45% of registered voters had already cast their ballots.

None of it changed McConnell’s core strategy.

McConnell has built his career by aggressively going after his opponents and his campaign pounced on comments McGrath, 45, made in her 2018 campaign for the U.S. House, using them to paint her as an extreme liberal who was out of touch with Kentucky. She was recorded saying she was “further left” than anyone in Kentucky in her house race.

On the campaign trail, McConnell played up the steep political divide between rural and urban areas of the country, often repeating that he was the only party leader in the House or the Senate that wasn’t from New York or California. He claimed his role in leadership helped Kentucky punch above its weight.