Mitch McConnell, the longest-serving senator in Kentucky’s history, probably will be succeeded by a fellow Republican from a deep bench he helped build as the godfather of the state’s now-dominant GOP.
The winner of what may be a crowded Republican primary in May 2026 will be favored to replace the retiring McConnell in a state President Donald Trump won by 31 percentage points in the 2024 election. Kentucky last voted Democratic for the Senate in 1992, when it re-elected Wendell Ford.
A likely top candidate is Daniel Cameron, Kentucky’s former attorney general and a McConnell protégé who lost a 2023 ...