McConnell says, 'I'm not going anywhere' after Kentucky passes Senate vacancy law

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday that he has no plans to retire before the end of his current term in office despite his recent support of a Kentucky bill governing how state leaders would fill vacant Senate seats.

"I don’t think we’re going to have a vacancy. I’m not going anywhere," McConnell said at a press conference. "I just got elected to a six-year term and I’m still the leader of my party in the Senate, so this is a hypothetical. But I have watched this over the years in the Senate as various vacancies were filled and I thought this was the best way to go." The bill passed just months after McConnell won reelection to the Senate for a term expiring in 2026. Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers, a Republican, recently affirmed that McConnell had no intention of leaving office. The bill also requires the Kentucky governor to select a senator’s replacement from one of three candidates provided by top officials of the state political party. McConnell said he would have supported the measure regardless of which party was in the governor’s office.