“And this year, when we end the cruel, defeatist practice of passing children who cannot read into fourth grade, and when our most diligent students begin to graduate from high school in 11 years, and get a head start on college costs with the dollars they earned through their hard work, others will take notice of Indiana yet again.”

American politician and attorney

Addison Mitchell McConnell III is an American politician and attorney. He has served as a United States senator from Kentucky since 1985 and has been the state's senior senator since 1999. A Republican, McConnell has served in his seventh Senate term and is the longest-serving senator in Kentucky history. He led the Senate Republican Conference from 2007 to 2025, including one term as majority leader and two as minority leader, and became the longest-serving Senate party leader in U.S. history.