--- title: Mitch McConnell Returns to the Senate description: The Kentucky lawmaker announced that he’s casting a vote in the Senate on Monday, marking the end of his months-long absence from the upper chamber after he was hospitalized in June following a fall. canonical: https://time.com/article/2026/09/14/mitch-mcconnell-senate-return-absence/ author: Chantelle Lee article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-09-14T22:39:58.229Z article:modified_time: 2026-09-14T22:39:58.441Z article:section: Politics og:title: Mitch McConnell Returns to the Senate og:description: The Kentucky lawmaker announced that he’s casting a vote in the Senate on Monday, marking the end of his months-long absence from the upper chamber after he was hospitalized in June following a fall. og:url: https://time.com/article/2026/09/14/mitch-mcconnell-senate-return-absence/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb8ac4cc178b3c094/6aa875f8bce81b087b41ce0a/McConnell-Returns.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: McConnell-Returns.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Mitch McConnell Returns to the Senate twitter:description: The Kentucky lawmaker announced that he’s casting a vote in the Senate on Monday, marking the end of his months-long absence from the upper chamber after he was hospitalized in June following a fall. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb8ac4cc178b3c094/6aa875f8bce81b087b41ce0a/McConnell-Returns.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Mitch McConnell Returns to the Senate, Ending His Months-Long Absence > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Chantelle Lee](https://time.com/author/chantelle-lee/) ## Chantelle Lee Reporter Sep 14, 2026 10:39 PM UTC  Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) speaks to the press as he arrives for a vote at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 14, 2026. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) speaks to the press as he arrives for a vote at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 14, 2026. Finn Gomez—Getty Images by [Chantelle Lee](https://time.com/author/chantelle-lee/) ## Chantelle Lee Reporter Sep 14, 2026 10:39 PM UTC Sen. [Mitch McConnell](https://time.com/collections/2015-time-100/3822824/mitch-mcconnell-2015-time-100/) announced that he’s casting a vote in the Senate on Monday, marking the end of his [months-long absence](https://time.com/article/2026/07/13/how-graham-s-death-and-mcconnell-s-absence-complicates-senate-gop-s-agenda/) from the upper chamber after he was hospitalized in June following a fall. “Today, I’ll cast my first Senate vote since I took a bad fall back in June,” McConnell said in a [post on X](https://x.com/SenMcConnell/status/2099616441079124330) on Monday evening. “I’m really looking forward to being back on the Senate floor and seeing my colleagues.” The 84-year-old Kentucky Republican went on to say that his "recovery has been a long and often frustrating process,” adding that the “lingering effects” of his bout with polio during his childhood have also impacted his recovery. “I’m still not quite back to 100%, but I’ve assured \[Senate Majority Leader John Thune\] 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. McConnell’s office initially shared little to no information when the Senator was hospitalized on June 14\. After weeks of uncertainty—and his absence from the Senate—rumors and speculation over the state of his health began swirling online. In July, Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear shared a [letter](https://governor.ky.gov/attachments/20260708%5FMcConnell-Letter.pdf) in which he urged McConnell to “fully update Kentuckians regarding the current status of \[his\] health.” **Read More:** [_Kentucky Gov. Beshear Keeps Pushing for Info on McConnell’s Health. He Says He’s ‘Heard Absolutely Nothing Back’_](https://time.com/article/2026/08/17/andy-beshear-mitch-mcconnell-health-kentucky/) A few days later, the Republican lawmaker [disclosed](https://time.com/article/2026/07/13/mitch-mcconnell-breaks-silence-with-statement-and-photo-amid-questions-about-health-status/) that he had been taken to the hospital after he “briefly” lost consciousness following a fall, and that he later had to grapple with a “mild case of pneumonia.” He pushed back, though, on rumors that he was suffering from any severe conditions, saying that his doctors confirmed that he didn’t break any bones or suffer a concussion, and that he didn’t have any tumors or experience a heart attack. At the end of July, McConnell’s office [shared another update](https://time.com/article/2026/07/27/mitch-mcconnell-health-update-hospitalization-senate/), stating that the Senator was maintaining his physical therapy, per his doctors’ orders, and that he had been discharged from the hospital but was not, at that time, medically cleared to leave the rehabilitation center he was at and return to the upper chamber. On Aug. 6, his office announced that he had been discharged from the rehabilitation facility that day and would continue his recovery at home. McConnell plans to retire in January, when his term comes to an end. This is not the first time that he has had a health scare; he has had [multiple falling incidents](https://time.com/article/2026/07/13/mitch-mcconnell-breaks-silence-with-statement-and-photo-amid-questions-about-health-status/) in recent years. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/09/14/mitch-mcconnell-senate-return-absence/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/09/14/mitch-mcconnell-senate-return-absence/"},"headline":"Mitch McConnell Returns to the Senate, Ending His Months-Long Absence","datePublished":"2026-09-14T22:39:58.229Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T22:39:58.441Z","description":"The Kentucky lawmaker announced that he’s casting a vote in the Senate on Monday, marking the end of his months-long absence from the upper chamber after he was hospitalized in June following a fall.","url":"https://time.com/article/2026/09/14/mitch-mcconnell-senate-return-absence/","keywords":["Congress","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb8ac4cc178b3c094/6aa875f8bce81b087b41ce0a/McConnell-Returns.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Chantelle Lee","jobTitle":"Reporter","url":"https://time.com/author/chantelle-lee/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb8ac4cc178b3c094/6aa875f8bce81b087b41ce0a/McConnell-Returns.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"McConnell-Returns.jpg","caption":"","creditText":"Finn Gomez—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/09/14/mitch-mcconnell-senate-return-absence/","name":"Mitch McConnell Returns to the Senate, Ending His Months-Long Absence"}}]}] ```