Video: Meet Mitch McConnell: one of the Republicans who can block Barack Obama's agenda Mitch McConnell has spent 30 years in the US Senate, climbing the ranks of the Republican party's leadership. Re-elected as Kentucky Senator for a sixth term in Tuesday's midterms, the 72-year-old is now poised to achieve his long-cherished goal: becoming Senate Majority Leader. Viewed by Democrats as excessively partisan but by both parties as a shrewd and tough tactician, McConnell has opposed Obama's health care and financial regulation overhauls, as well as environmental curbs which he says damage his state's coal industry. "Since he was 5 years old, he's got up in the morning and all he thinks about is what he should do that day to acquire or maintain his political power," said Democratic Rep. John Yarmuth of Kentucky, who has known McConnell since 1968. He's the most focused individual I've ever known.