The spouse of Senator Mitch McConnell is a prominent American businesswoman who previously served as the United States Secretary of Transportation.
McConnell himself is considered to be a highly successful and influential figure among Republican leaders in the US Senate.
At 81 years old, he was first elected to represent Kentucky in the Senate back in 1984. Unfortunately, he recently suffered a concussion after tripping and falling at a dinner event, requiring hospitalization for treatment and observation.
Elaine Chao, McConnell’s wife, has an impressive background, having immigrated to the US from Taiwan at a young age and becoming a US citizen at 19.
She attended prestigious universities like Mount Holyoke and Harvard Business School, where she was the first woman elected a class officer and marshal.
She went on to work for major banks like Bank of America and Citicorp and served as one of 12 White House fellows during the Reagan administration.
She also held high-level positions in government, banking, and the nonprofit world, including serving as President Trump‘s Secretary of Transportation until she resigned in the aftermath of the pro-Trump riot at the Capitol.
Chao’s father, Dr. James, is also a successful businessman who founded the shipping company Foremost Group. Her mother, Ruth Mulan Chu Chao, passed away in 2007.
Still, the Chao family has continued to support causes important to her, including donating $40 million to Harvard to fund the Ruth Mulan Chu Chao Center, which was completed in 2016.
This center was the first building at Harvard Business School named for a woman and the first named for an Asian American on the Harvard campus. Throughout their long partnership, McConnell and Chao have shown unwavering support for each other.
Ex-wife of Senator Mitch McConnell
Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Senator, was married to Sherrill Redmon from 1968 to 1980, and together they had three children: Elly, Porter, and Claire McConnell.
Following their divorce, Redmon pursued a career in feminist scholarship at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she served as the director of the Sophia Smith Collection of the Women’s History Archives in 1993.
During her tenure at Smith College, Redmon made significant efforts to diversify the Collection, with a particular focus on expanding its cultural and racial diversity.
She collaborated with renowned journalist and feminist activist Floria Steinem on the Voices of Feminism oral history project.
