The Senate impeachment trial of former President Trump is over, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell wants to move on. In an interview this week with the Wall Street Journal, he said the important thing now is to regain the Senate in 2022 by “getting candidates who can actually win in November.”
Toward that end, McConnell suggested he might get involved in some GOP primaries. “I personally don’t care what kind of Republican they are, what kind of lane they consider themselves in,” McConnell said. “What I care about is electability.”
That’s quite a statement coming from McConnell, who has a mixed record at backing “electable” candidates. In the 2009-10 cycle, McConnell fought hard against then-candidates Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Mike Lee, Ron Johnson, and (briefly) Pat Toomey, deeming them unelectable. He opposed Ted Cruz in 2012 and Ben Sasse in 2014.
He was largely responsible for losing a GOP Senate seat in Alabama in 2017 after backing Luther
