Mitch McConnell last cast a vote on June 11 — roll call 171, a Yea. He has missed the 46 since — number 172 on June 15 through 217 on July 30. On vote 216, his was the only name in the Not Voting column. On Monday, Kentucky reaches a date written into its own constitution, and after Monday the state may hold one senator until 2027.
McConnell announced on July 27 that he will not attend the Fancy Farm picnic in Graves County today, where the speeches start at 3 p.m. "There's no place I'd rather be on the first Saturday in August than with the good people of western Kentucky, feasting on pork and mutton," he said.
Gov. Andy Beshear wrote him the same day, calling on him "to directly and verbally address the people of Kentucky and provide proof of your capacity to serve, or resign." Beshear also asked Majority Leader John Thune to investigate and, if McConnell cannot demonstrate capacity, to begin a process. Thune declined on Tuesday: "that's an issue really that's between Sen. McConnell and the people of Kentucky." No senator has called for expulsion, which takes 67 votes.
Section 152 of the Kentucky constitution sets the date: "If three months do not intervene between the happening of said vacancy and the next succeeding election… the office shall be filled by appointment until the second succeeding annual election." Three months before the November 3 general election falls on Monday, August 3. Beshear flagged it: "There's an argument out there that that's a date where I could not later call a special election."
Kentucky lawmakers took the appointment away in 2024. House Bill 622 repealed KRS 63.200 — Beshear vetoed it, the legislature overrode him. A governor can now only call a special election, and the seat sits empty until a winner is certified. Senate Bill 228, the 2021 law it replaced, had already forced the governor to choose from a list supplied by the departing senator's own party. McConnell backed it.
Section 152 also says vacancies "for the State at large… shall be filled by appointment of the Governor" — which legal experts quoted by the Kentucky Lantern and CNBC call a colorable argument that HB 622 is invalid. No court has tested it. A vacancy would put a Democratic governor and a Republican legislature in court over a US Senate seat.
