Louisville, Ky. (AP) – Mitch McConnell and Elaine Chaos Permanent Status as a pair of strength were exhibited on Tuesday when they are thinking about their life through their life together for the archives who catalog their career.
The Kentuckians marked the expansion of the McConnell Chao Archives at McConnell’s Alma Mater, the University of Louisville. McConnell, the longest chairman of the Senate in US history, is in his last term after the Republican Senator announced in February that he would not apply for re-election in 2026. Chao, his wife, is a former American working and transport secretary for Republican administrations.
“I didn’t get into this work to put my name in a building,” said McConnell during the campus ceremony. “We needed an archive mostly because I never threw anything away.”
The collection will include its decades of public life and “give a view in the front row about how our government and institutions work,” said McConnell in a press release.
The couple – an impressive duo on the campaign path in the Bluegrass State for decades – praised itself during the Campus ceremony.
The 83-year-old McConnell is Kentuckys the longest reigning senator. He was elected to the Senate for the first time in 1984 and elected to his seventh term in 2020. His term as a leader of the Senate party ended at the beginning of 2025.
At the event on Tuesday, Chao McConnell described the “best friend and teammate and also the man who is in the center of my life, the man who supported my career in the public service”. She called her husband the “most productive” senate leader of history in history and said that Kentucky was still “the advantages” from his term.
“With the expansion of this archive, his extraordinary achievements will continue to inform and inspire managers for the coming generations,” she said.
McConnell replied the compliments and said: “Life with Elaine was a blessing. It is an honor to share this archive.”
McConnell considered his famed career and said about his wife: “She was my most effective lawyer at every step of the way. And thank you again.”
Uofl President Gerry Bradley said that the archives will be an “invaluable source” for scholars and historians by giving an insight into the career of McConnell and Chao.
“It is not just a recording of political history – it is a lively resource for students, scientists and citizens who try to understand the democratic process and to deal with the democratic process,” he said.
The McConnell Chao Archives was originally installed in 2009 and contains a eternal gallery that is accessible to the public in the Uofl Ekstrom library. It contains exhibits, films and interactive exhibitions about the US government, history and politics. The expansion improved the capacity and functionality of the facility through a newly built archive storage room to accommodate the couple’s collections.
The huge volumes of archived materials are processed and are not yet available for research. McConnell joked that his political enemies were “held away from seeing anything”.
Another campus initiative near McConnell’s heart was the McConnell Center, a non -partisan academic program at the university, which is intended to prepare the students for future leadership roles.
“The idea here was to try to offer an experience in Ivy League in a place in Kentucky,” said McConnell on Tuesday. “The point is that so many of our sharpest children go east and never come back.”
For years, the center has attracted a long list of US and international managers to Louisville to keep speeches.
The program’s graduates have followed a vast number of professions – including public service, business and medicine – and many have returned to make their lives and career in Kentucky, said McConnell.
