page_title: Mitch McConnell
section_title: Early life and education (1942–1967)
hierarchical_section_title: Mitch McConnell / Early life and education (1942–1967)
context_page_description: Addison Mitchell McConnell Jr. is an American politician serving as Kentucky's senior United States senator and as Senate Majority Leader. McConnell is the second Kentuckian to serve as a party leader in the Senate, the longest-serving U.S. senator for Kentucky in history, and the longest-serving leader of U.S. Senate Republicans in history.
  McConnell was first elected to the Senate in 1984. During the 1998 and 2000 election cycles, he was chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. McConnell was elected as Majority Whip in the 108th Congress and was re-elected to the post in 2004. In November 2006, he was elected Senate Minority Leader; he held that post until 2015, when Republicans took control of the Senate and he became Senate Majority Leader.
  McConnell was known as a pragmatist and a moderate Republican early in his political career but shifted to the right over time. He led opposition to stricter campaign finance laws, culminating in the Supreme Court ruling that partially overturned the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act in 2010.
context_section_description: McConnell was born February 20, 1942, to Addison Mitchell McConnell Sr. (1917–1990) and Julia Odene "Dean" (née Shockley) McConnell (1919–1993). McConnell was born in Sheffield, Alabama, and grew up in nearby Athens, Alabama. He is of Scots-Irish and English descent. One of his ancestors fought on the American side in the American Revolutionary War.
  In 1944, at the age of two, McConnell's upper left leg was paralyzed by a polio attack. He received treatment at the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation. The treatment potentially saved him from being disabled for the rest of his life. McConnell stated that his family "almost went broke" because of costs related to his illness.
  In 1950, when he was eight, McConnell moved with his family from Athens to Augusta, Georgia, where his father, who was in the Army, was stationed at Fort Gordon. 
  In 1956, his family moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where he attended duPont Manual High School. McConnell was elected student council president at his high school during his junior year. He graduated with honors from the University of Louisville with a B.A. in political science in 1964. He was president of the Student Council of the College of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity.
  McConnell attended the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Martin Luther King Jr. gave the "I Have a Dream" speech. In 1964, at the age of 22, he attended civil rights rallies, and interned with Senator John Sherman Cooper. He has stated his time with Cooper inspired him to run for the Senate later in life.
  In 1967, McConnell graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Law, where he was president of the Student Bar Association.
caption: McConnell, right, attending a rally for civil rights in 1964