WASHINGTON — Sen. Mitch McConnell was re-elected Tuesday to his Senate minority leadership post, putting to rest months of speculation about whether the top-ranking Republican would face a challenge.
The Kentucky lawmaker was nominated by 2008 Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Sen.-elect Marco Rubio of Florida, one of several Tea Party-backed freshmen who won with support from South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint.
DeMint, a staunch conservative, had been mentioned as a possible challenger to McConnell for the Senate GOP leadership position, but he said repeatedly that he wasn’t interested in the post.
McConnell’s re-election, coupled with his endorsement of a DeMint-led moratorium on earmarks — the thousands of local projects stuffed into legislation that add up to billions of federal dollars — further signals a unifying Republican caucus amid messy infighting that could have proved a distraction. McClatchy Newspapers
