Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, history's longest-serving Senate leader, plans to step down as after November's elections. The 82-year-old has led Senate Republicans since 2007, but his real legacy will be outside the chamber, analysts say. He helped build a conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court by blocking Barack Obama from filling a vacancy and overseeing three confirmations during Donald Trump's administration. He also oversaw the confirmation of more than 200 conservative lower-court judges, often after blocking Obama nominees. "Rulings from judges he helped confirm will be shaping American life for decades to come," writes Sareen Habeshian at Axios. More:
- Three Johns: The New York Times looks at three of the most likely candidates to replace McConnell, the high-ranking senators known as the "Three Johns": Sens. John Thune, John Cornyn, and John Barrasso. Other possibilities in the Senate leadership team include Sens. Joni Ernst and Shelley Moore Capito. (Trump has now put Steve Daines in the mix as well.)