Mitch McConnell’s Health Fuels Longshot Theory He Could Be Replaced By Thomas Massie
The suggestion comes as McConnell, 84, has been hospitalized for weeks, prompting rampant conspiracies about his health and speculation his seat could become vacant before he retires at the end of the year.
Trump ally Steve Bannon is among those on the right suggesting the Republican establishment is shielding the state of McConnell’s health from the public to allow him to remain in office long enough to avoid Massie running for his seat.
Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., also fueled the idea when she told TMZ on Tuesday that “Thomas Massie would make a great senator.”
Massie, however, has not said whether he would run in a special election to replace McConnell—and even if he did, he would only serve until January, when the winner of the November election to succeed McConnell takes office.
Kentucky’s special election process for Senate vacancies, enacted in 2024, is untested and the timing of a special election so close to a general election is somewhat unclear—the governor is required to notify local officials 56 days before the special election must occur, and candidates must be nominated at least 49 days prior to the election.
Louisville Metro Council member and former state Rep. Kevin Brachter, who sponsored the change to the vacancy process in 2024, told local news channel WLKY if McConnell’s seat becomes vacant within 56 days of the Nov. 3 general election, after Sept. 8, then the seat would remain vacant until the winner of the general election takes office in January.
Massie lost his primary race to retired Navy SEAL captain Ed Gallrein by 10 points after Trump and pro-Israel groups backed Gallrein. Massie was among Trump’s top Republican targets in this year’s midterms as the Republican senator has repeatedly bucked his party and voted against Trump’s legislative priorities. Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., and former Rep. Charles Booker, D-Ky., are competing in the November general election to replace McConnell. Barr is likely to win as the seat is considered solidly Republican.
The state parties would likely nominate Barr and Booker to run in a special election to fill the remainder of McConnell’s term, if one is held, but Massie could run as an independent.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/s...ed-by-thomas-massie/
"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible."
-- Justice Janice Rogers Brown
"The United States government is the largest criminal enterprise on earth."
-rduckwor