On June 14, 2026, paramedics responded to a report of cardiac arrest at the Washington D.C. home of Senator Mitch McConnell, 84, of Kentucky. Emergency medical services audio confirmed "CPR in progress." McConnell was carried from his home on a stretcher and transported to the hospital. He has not been seen publicly since.

It has now been 28 days. His office has issued three nearly identical statements saying only that he is receiving "excellent care" and "working closely with staff." No medical diagnosis has been disclosed. No timeline for return to duty has been provided. No physician's statement has been released. His wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, remained in China for weeks after the hospitalization, with her office stating his health "did not warrant an immediate return."

Meanwhile, someone has been at McConnell's Washington residence selecting carpet samples and new flooring. Marjorie Taylor Greene has told reporters he is a "vegetable." A Republican operative claims to have had a 20-minute substantive phone conversation with him. President †rump says he has "no idea" how McConnell is doing. The American public is left with a sitting United States senator who chairs two committees of enormous national consequence, who has been absent and unaccounted for nearly a month, and whose office treats any request for information as an inconvenience to be deflected with boilerplate.

Senator McConnell chairs the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, which oversees Senate procedures, federal election laws, and the administration of Senate operations. He chairs the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, which controls the United States defense budget. He serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee and the Senate Agriculture Committee. The Senate returns from recess on July 13, 2026, tomorrow, and his capacity to fulfill these responsibilities is unknown to everyone, including, apparently, the president of the United States.

This is not about politics. This is about accountability. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear has publicly demanded a health update, stating "Kentuckians of every stripe deserve a clear and honest answer about their senator's condition." Every American deserves a Congress whose members are accountable to the public about their capacity to serve. Sign this petition and demand that Senator McConnell's office provide a full, transparent, medically documented health disclosure to the people of Kentucky and to the nation.
 
PETITION 
We, the undersigned, are citizens of the United States who demand full transparency and public accountability regarding the health and capacity to serve of United States Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky.

On June 14, 2026, paramedics performed CPR at Senator McConnell's Washington D.C. residence following a reported cardiac arrest. He was transported to the hospital and has not been seen publicly in 28 days. His office has refused to disclose the nature of his medical condition, his prognosis, or any timeline for his return to Senate duties. The boilerplate statements released by his office do not constitute transparency. They constitute stonewalling.

Senator McConnell is not a private citizen. He is a United States senator whose salary is paid by the American people, whose votes affect the lives of every person in this country, and who currently chairs the Senate Rules and Administration Committee and the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. The Senate returns to session on July 13, 2026. His constituents, the people of Kentucky, and the American public at large have a legitimate and urgent need to know whether their elected representative is capable of performing the duties they elected him to perform.

We acknowledge and respect Senator McConnell's right to medical privacy as a human being. We are not demanding the release of private medical records. We are demanding what has been provided by every other president and senator who has faced a serious medical event in the modern era: a physician's statement, an honest assessment of his capacity to fulfill his official duties, and a timeline for his return to or departure from those duties. The American people are entitled to nothing less.

The fact that someone has been at his home selecting new flooring while his office refuses to answer basic questions about his condition speaks to a communications strategy designed to obscure rather than inform. The conflicting accounts now circulating from fellow Republicans, ranging from claims of 20-minute substantive phone conversations to descriptions of him as incapacitated, have created a vacuum of credible information that undermines public trust in the institution of the United States Senate itself.

Kentucky changed its Senate vacancy law in 2024 to require a special election rather than a gubernatorial appointment if the seat becomes vacant. That law has never been tested. Legal experts have raised serious constitutional questions about whether it can survive a challenge. The uncertainty surrounding that law, combined with the uncertainty surrounding Senator McConnell's condition, creates a situation in which Kentucky could find itself with only one functioning senator for an indeterminate period while the Senate operates on a 53-47 Republican majority in which every vote counts. This is not an academic concern. It is an immediate institutional crisis that demands immediate transparency.

1. Senator McConnell's office must release a full physician's statement, signed by his treating physician, disclosing the nature of his medical condition, his current clinical status, and his projected capacity to return to Senate duties. This statement must be released within 72 hours of this petition being delivered.
2. Senator McConnell must make a public statement, in his own voice, audio or video, confirming his awareness of and engagement with current Senate business, or must authorize his office to provide a clear and honest statement about his actual condition and capacity.
3. Senate Majority Leader John Thune must publicly address the institutional consequences of Senator McConnell's extended absence from the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, which he chairs, and from the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, which he also chairs, and must disclose what arrangements have been made to ensure those committees are functioning in his absence.
4. The United States Senate must establish a formal mechanism requiring senators who are medically incapacitated for more than 30 days to provide a physician-certified capacity statement to the Senate and to their constituents, as a matter of institutional accountability and public trust.
5. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear must continue his public pressure for transparency, and must be prepared to act in accordance with Kentucky law and the United States Constitution if Senator McConnell is determined to be unable to complete his term, ensuring that the people of Kentucky are not left without full Senate representation during a period of critical national legislative activity.

We are not McConnell's enemies. We are not asking for anything that is not routinely expected of any elected official who serves at the public's pleasure and trust. We are asking for honesty, accountability, and the basic respect that elected officials owe to the constituents who sent them to Washington. The people of Kentucky deserve to know the truth about their senator. The American people deserve a Senate whose members are accountable for their capacity to serve. This petition demands both.

Senator McConnell has served the people of Kentucky since 1985. Whatever one thinks of his record, he deserves honest medical care and genuine privacy in his personal suffering. What he does not have the right to do, and what his office does not have the right to do on his behalf, is maintain a public fiction about his capacity to serve a constituency that depends on him, while chairing committees of national consequence and collecting a taxpayer-funded salary. The people of Kentucky sent him to Washington. They deserve the truth about whether he is still able to be there for them. That is not too much to ask. Sign this petition and make that demand heard.

IF YOU WANT TO SEND VIA MAIL/EMAIL, SEND TO:

• Senator Mitch McConnell — Kentucky – Washington D.C. Office: (202) 224-2541
  Contact form: mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contactform
  Louisville Office: (502) 582-6304 | Lexington Office: (859) 224-8286
• Senate Majority Leader John Thune — South Dakota – Washington D.C. Office: (202) 224-2321     Contact form: thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact
• Senate Rules and Administration Committee — McConnell is Chairman, Main line: (202) 224-6352
  Committee homepage: rules.senate.gov
• Senate Appropriations Committee — McConnell serves and chairs Defense Subcommittee                Main line: (202) 224-7257
  Committee homepage: appropriations.senate.gov
  Room S-128, The Capitol, Washington D.C. 20510
• Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, Main line: (502) 564-5497
  Contact form: governor.ky.gov/contact
• Capitol Switchboard — Ask for Your Own Senators and Representative:  (202) 224-3121

Tell them you have signed this petition and demand they publicly call for Senator McConnell's office to release a full physician's health disclosure.