McConnell ranked as one of the least conservative Republican senators by CPAC

The Conservative Political Action Coalition gave Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) a “conservative rating” of 68%, about on par with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and ahead of Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), who received a score of 54%.

McConnell’s score this year is 12% higher than last year when CPAC gave him a rating of 56%, but the Senate GOP leader finds himself far behind other Republicans in the conference like Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT), J.D. Vance (R-OH) and Rand Paul (R-KY). Lee was the only Senate Republican to receive a 100%. 

The lowest-scoring member of Republican leadership was Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), who serves as the Senate Republican Conference vice chairwoman. The West Virginia senator received a 66% score. The other lowest-scoring Republican senators were Thom Tillis (R-NC) with 65%, Mitt Romney (R-UT) with 59%, and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Susan Collins (R-ME) with 55%. Collins’s score was significantly higher than last year when she received a 38% ranking. 

The release of this year’s scores comes almost two months after the Senate minority leader announced he would be stepping down as the upper chamber’s Republican leader in November. The Kentucky senator is widely credited with cementing a conservative majority on the Supreme Court, and the rulings from judges he helped confirm will be shaping the country for decades. The Washington Examiner reached out to McConnell’s office for comment.

However, Senate Republicans have been under increased tensions in recent months over McConnell’s unrelenting support of Ukraine and the failed foreign aid and border security bill that caused GOP senators to rebuke leadership for being “out of touch” with conservative voters.

“The incredible diversity of issues touched on by these amendments has helped differentiate establishment Republicanism from the true constitutional conservatives more than ever,” CPAC Chairman Matt Schlapp said in a statement. “Despite the presence of more opportunities to vote on key issues and their majority in the House, Republicans generally failed to have any major positive effect on the overall state of affairs in Congress.”

Fifteen House Republicans received a perfect score, including Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Greg Steube (R-FL), and Dan Bishop (R-NC). House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) scored 91%.

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The 74-page report card shared with The Washington Examiner grades all House and Senate members on their votes on several policies conservative voters care about. In the new report, the 53rd done by the group, the number of votes scored was expanded because there was more action on Republican policies.

According to CPAC, the report was generated by a compilation of every vote taken last session of Congress across a wide array of issues like fiscal matters, taxation, regulation, education, the environment, Second Amendment rights, election security, life, and government integrity.