McConnell can resign without leaving the Senate.

Senator Mitch McConnell appeared to have another elderly moment in Kentucky following an event today, where a question about whether he would run for re-election in 2026 left him silent as the cameras tracked the awkward scene.

It is obviously not the first time that this has happened for McConnell — and the eighty-one-year-old deserves the grace that we would grant to anyone struggling with the inevitability of age. But this is also a moment that presents a challenge for the Republican Party, an effort that is larger than just one man (despite what diehard fans of Donald Trump would sometimes have you believe), and one that Senate Minority Leader McConnell will have to consider in the coming days.

The simple fact is this: in his lucid moments, which is the case more often than not according to multiple Senate staffers, McConnell is just a slower version of his younger self. Speaking off the cuff to the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce minutes before the media gaggle, McConnell seemed fine. But the attention he receives as the Senate’s leader of the GOP is far more than your average senator. In the context of 2024, his prominence causes problems for other Republicans forced to defend his status even as they assail Joe Biden as too aged and decrepit to lead the nation.

It is an open secret who wants McConnell’s job should he decide to step down, and the three Johns — Cornyn, Thune and Barrasso —  have previously engaged in the kind of outreach that indicates their intention to replace him. But none of them are so gauche as to try to unseat him directly. The decision is left up to McConnell himself, out of deference to his tenure as leader.

There is also a feeling in some anti-McConnell corners, including outside activists, that they prefer him in this weakened mode, where he is less of a force in determining the direction of the party. They would prefer to see the House and the more conservative Kevin McCarthy take the lead in setting the direction for Republicans, as he has.

Many Republicans point out that McConnell needs to stay in his seat to prevent Kentucky’s Democratic governor Andy Beshear, currently being challenged by McConnell ally Daniel Cameron, from naming a replacement. But that is a reason for McConnell to stay in the Senate, not one that requires him to stay on as its minority leader. 

The truth is that McConnell is not so dramatically reduced in his capacity that he needs to step down as a senator. He shows far greater capacity than current Senate Democrats Dianne Feinstein or John Fetterman, nor does he have the health struggles of the likes of Thad Cochran or Johnny Isakson in their final years. But continuing on as minority leader headed into a critical election year is a different question entirely. Stepping down from one role doesn’t necessitate stepping down from the job entirely — Nancy Pelosi is still around here somewhere, keeping things running on time.

Republicans should consider what picture they want to offer the country in 2024. If they truly want to depict the Democratic Party as behind the times, a whisper-thin ghost of the past, in contrast to a party focused on the future, with a rising generation of new leaders and an expanding and more diverse base of working- and middle-class voters, they can help their cause a great deal by moving on with leadership where press conferences aren’t a tightrope walk. When it comes to knowing when it’s time, everyone on Team McConnell is going to defer to the boss. But it really is time for someone new.