Mitch McConnell returns to the Senate after three-month absence

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., returned to the Senate on Monday and cast his vote after a more than three-month absence.

“Today, I’ll cast my first Senate vote since I took a bad fall back in June. I’m really looking forward to being back on the Senate floor and seeing my colleagues,” McConnell wrote in a statement Monday.

He later voted to advance the nomination of Matthew Byrne to be a U.S. district judge for the Southern District of Ohio.

McConnell said his recovery had been “a long and frustrating process,” adding that it had been complicated by “lingering effects of childhood polio.”

“I’m still not quite back to 100%, but I’ve assured Leader Thune that, as I continue with physical therapy on the advice of my doctors, I will do my best to be present for tough votes when our Conference needs me,” McConnell said in his statement.

McConnell has been missing from the Senate since mid-June, when he fell at home and was “briefly unconscious,” according to a statement in July.

“I must admit, after two years, two decades after dodging your questions, I wasn’t sure how many of you would be here today,” McConnell joked to reporters as he sat in a wheelchair Monday. “So I’m glad to see you. Time to get back to work to finish the job for this Congress. I’m here to work on the farm bill.”

McConnell, who appeared frail but jovial, did not take questions from reporters.

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McConnell was hospitalized after his fall and later released to rehabilitation care.

At the time, his office released a photo of him in a hospital chair alongside his wife, Elaine Chao. His absence, along with a lack of interview appearances in the media, led to rampant speculation and calls from members of the public and Kentucky’s Democratic governor to release proof that he was fit to serve in Congress or otherwise resign.

McConnell, 84, addressed why it took him so long to disclose the reason for his absence in July, saying he couldn’t help but hesitate “to share the vulnerability that comes with getting older.”

A farm bill is set for a markup Wednesday in the Senate Agriculture Committee. Republicans hold a slim 12-11 majority in the committee, meaning McConnell’s presence is needed to send bills to the full Senate floor on party-line votes.

McConnell, who is retiring at the end of the year, has faced several health issues in the past few years. He took a fall at a Senate Leadership Fund dinner in 2023, leading to a hospitalization and a diagnosis of a concussion and a rib fracture. Later that year, McConnell froze midsentence while he was addressing reporters on the Hill on more than one occasion.

McConnell was elected to the Senate in 1984. Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., is the Republican nominee for his seat in the ruby-red state.