Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear sent a letter to the office of Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell on Wednesday requesting an update about his health amid his fourth straight week in the hospital.
“Over the last several weeks, Kentuckians have grown increasingly concerned about the current state of your health and wellbeing, and ability to hold office in the United States Senate,” wrote the Democratic governor. “As Governor, I request that you fully update Kentuckians regarding the current status of your health.”
McConnell has missed Senate votes and not done any media interviews since he was first hospitalized on June 14, with no details about why he was hospitalized and his current status, other than that he is recovering, receiving good care and “working closely with his staff” on Senate matters.
“As public officeholders, we have made a commitment to our constituents to do our best to represent them and to always be transparent,” Beshear wrote in the letter. “I believe this requires clear communication about one's ability to serve.”
Speculation on McConnell’s health has spiraled out of control on social media, even as his allies posted or issued statements Tuesday that they had spoken to the 84-year-old senator. Scott Jennings, a CNN conservative commentator and McConnell-turned-Trump acolyte, posted on X that he had spoken with McConnell for 20 minutes Wednesday morning.
Later that day on CNN, Jennings said that McConnell’s “voice sounded strong” in their wide-ranging conversation. He said he did not ask McConnell why he was hospitalized.
Multiple outlets have reported on audio of EMS dispatch calls from the day McConnell was hospitalized, directing medical personnel to his address. They refer to a person found “unconscious” and in “cardiac arrest.”
Top Senate leaders have also said they spoke this week with McConnell, including GOP Senate Floor Leader John Thune and Senate Whip John Barrasso.
In response to Kentucky Public Radio’s request for an interview with him, his spokesperson said she “will keep your interview request on hand with the many others."
McConnell’s health became an issue in 2023 when he had a concussion from a fall, subsequently freezing up at two public speeches. With the decline of his health — and fierce public criticism from Trump — McConnell gave up his leadership position in 2024, then announced soon after he would not run for reelection in 2026.
Questions over new Senate vacancy law in Kentucky
If a Senate vacancy were to occur through a hypothetical resignation or death, Gov. Beshear would no longer have any say in appointing an interim replacement, thanks to a 2024 law passed by the Republican-dominated Kentucky General Assembly that fully stripped the governor’s powers.
Prior to 2021, a Kentucky governor would fill a Senate vacancy with an appointment, until an election for a permanent senator. That year, at Republicans' urging, they passed a law limiting the governor’s power, as the party of the departing senator would give the governor three people to choose from for an appointment, with a special election to follow.
Beshear vetoed the bill before it received an override, arguing that it violated several sections of both the state and federal constitutions. Amid McConnell’s health problems in 2023, Beshear repeatedly refused to answer whether he would follow the law in the event of a vacancy, or make his own appointment and challenge the law in court.
In 2024, Republicans again changed the succession law, fully stripping the governor’s appointment power and requiring a Senate vacancy be filled with a special election, the same process as the state’s U.S. House seats. The party committees would choose their nominees.
The governor also vetoed this bill, but did not make any arguments that it was unconstitutional in his veto statement.
Mike Abate, a First Amendment attorney who once represented Beshear in a constitutional challenge, was skeptical that the 2021 vacancy law was constitutional, but believes the 2024 law would have a much better chance of standing up to a legal challenge.
“The federal Constitution says in the 17th Amendment if there's a vacancy in the office of senator, that the state legislatures may empower the governor to temporarily appoint somebody to fill that spot, but it's not required,” Abate said. “In fact, it says that the sort of dominant mode of replacement is for the governor to call a special election to fill that term, so I think the law that was enacted in ‘24 tracks that pretty closely.”
While the new 2024 law requires the governor to call a special election in the event of a Senate vacancy, there is the question when that call has to be made.
Abate noted that because there is no time frame in the law for when the governor must call a special election, Beshear could theoretically leave the seat vacant until the soonest general election. The law also states that the governor must call for a special election 63 days before that election takes place, so the need for this would be moot by mid-September, as the general election is on November 3.
Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Barr, a Trump loyalist, is set to face off against progressive former state Rep. Charles Booker in the November general election for McConnell’s seat.
