Kentucky Republican lawmakers remove Democratic governor’s role in filling U.S. Senate vacancies

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Republican lawmakers in Kentucky on Friday removed the Democratic governor from filling future vacancies in the U.S. Senate — a move his supporters say has nothing to do with recent scrutiny of the health of the state’s senior senator, the Republican leader. Mitch McConnell.

The GOP supermajority legislature easily overrode the government. Andy Beshearveto the measure. The legislation calls for special elections to be held to fill any vacancy in the Bluegrass State Senate. The winner of the special election would retain their seat for the remainder of the unexpired term.

“The people should always decide who is a United States senator by election,” House Majority Leader Steven Rudy, a Republican and the bill’s lead sponsor, said during a brief debate on the House floor Friday.

The Senate succession bill passed the Legislature at a time when the transition was imminent for the 82-year-old McConnell. In February, the venerable Kentucky senator announced that he would step down as longtime Senate leader in November.

Aides said McConnell’s announcement had nothing to do with his health. The senator suffered a concussion following a fall last year and had two public episodes in which his face briefly froze while he spoke.

How a Senate vacancy is filled takes on greater importance at a time when the Senate is narrowly divided along partisan lines. In 2021, Republican lawmakers in Kentucky ended the governor’s independent power to appoint a successor. Now they have completely excluded the governor from the process.

The Senate succession bill was part of a package rejected by the governor. Republican lawmakers spent much of Friday overriding those vetoes.

Lawmakers also overruled a veto of a measure promoting nuclear power in coal-producing Kentucky.

Beshear said he supports an “all of the above” energy policy that includes nuclear power, but objected to how members would be selected on an advisory council tasked with fostering nuclear development. ‘nuclear energy. Many of them would be appointed by private sector groups, bypassing the appointment authority of the governor or other state constitutional officials, Beshear said.

McConnell says he will serve his seventh term in the Senate, adding in a recent radio interview: “I don’t know how many times I can say that.” But that’s exactly what I’m going to do. He has given no indication that he will seek re-election in 2026, but McConnell has continued to raise money for his campaign.

McConnell spoke favorably of the succession bill in the same radio interview on WHAS-AM in Louisville, calling it a good idea that allows voters to decide the successor.

Rudy previously said the bill had nothing to do with McConnell but rather reflected his political position on how an empty Senate seat should be filled.

Rudy said he was talking about changing the way a Senate vacancy has been filled for more than a decade, since former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was convicted of crimes including attempting to sell an appointment to Barack Obama’s former Senate seat. The Rudy District in far western Kentucky borders Illinois.

Beshear, who won re-election last year against a McConnell protégé, noted that lawmakers had changed their minds for the second time in recent years on how to fill a Senate vacancy.

“Prior to these maneuvers, the same system had been in place since 1942,” Beshear said in his veto message. “This administration deserves the same authority as previous administrations.”