WASHINGTON — The last time Mitch McConnell wrestled back a Republican Senate majority was in 2014, when the GOP picked up a modern record of nine seats during the second midterm of Barack Obama’s presidency.
The sweeping success of that cycle — perhaps the high point of the Kentuckian’s fabled political career — was at the forefront of his mind in early 2021 as he looked ahead to the midterm campaign that just unfolded.
While privately seething at former President Donald Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, he reminded himself that the key to his 2014 victories was confronting the extremists within his party running in primaries.
