FRANKFORT — The day after Mitch McConnell announced he is stepping down as the U.S. Senate’s Republican leader, Republican lawmakers in his home state were working to trim the Kentucky governor’s role in filling future U.S. Senate vacancies.

A state House committee on Thursday approved a bill that would require the governor to call a special election to fill a vacant U.S. Senate seat and allow the winner to serve until the end of the unexpired term.

The governor now appoints a successor who serves until voters next go to the polls.

The sponsor of House Bill 622, Kentucky House Republican Floor Leader Steven Rudy, of Paducah, told reporters he had been interested in the process long before McConnell’s Wednesday announcement and had filed similar legislation in 2021.?

“I had no idea that the senator was going to make his announcement yesterday,” Rudy told reporters. “I tell people all the time: nobody’s guaranteed tomorrow. Not either Sen. Paul, not Sen. McConnell, not myself or anybody here.”?

With McConnell’s blessing in 2021, Kentucky’s Republican-controlled General Assembly required sitting governors to choose Senate appointees from the same political party as the person vacating the seat. That law requires the governor to appoint one of three recommendations from the appropriate party’s executive committee.

Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, sponsored the legislation. Rudy said he filed a version of his current bill then but it did not pass.?

Hours later, Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear told reporters that past Kentucky governors have had the power to fill U.S. Senate vacancies and said the bill is an example of partisan politics.

Rudy told the House Elections, Constitutional Amendments and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee that the current law conflicts with the spirit of the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which established voters should choose U.S. senators.?

Rudy cited former Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich’s? federal criminal conviction for putting an Illinois Senate seat “up for sale” after Barack Obama vacated it in 2008 to become president. Rudy said the corruption “really turned my stomach.”?

Committee members forwarded the bill with 13 yes votes, one no vote and a pass. All Republicans on the committee gave approval along with Rep. Josie Raymond, D-Louisville. Rep. Adrielle Camuel, D-Lexington, voted no.?

Rep. Keturah Herron, D-Louisville, passed and added that she wanted to get further clarity on questions she had before supporting or opposing the bill.?

Rep. Josh Calloway, R-Irvington, raised the issue of what should happen under the current law if a governor did not follow the law when selecting a Senate replacement.?

Last year, Republican gubernatorial candidate and former Attorney General Daniel Cameron pressed Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear on not publicly committing to picking a Republican to fill a Senate vacancy. Cameron is a McConnell protegé.?

In light of McConnell’s announcement, Beshear told the Kentucky Lantern: “There is no indication that he will not fulfill his promise to serve his entire term.”

McConnell, who recently turned 82, said on Wednesday that he looks forward to continuing to represent Kentucky in the Senate. He would be up for reelection in 2026.

In a Thursday press conference, Beshear reiterated that he is “completely and totally ruling out” a run for an open Senate seat in 2026. His second gubernatorial term ends in December 2027.?

He also said governors of both parties before 2021 had the same “type of authority that they’re trying to tear away from me in my time as governor.”

“?If we are just dominated by trying to create a result of what letter someone would have behind their name if appointed, then we are not performing or engaging in good government,” the governor said.?

Rudy disagreed, saying the U.S. Constitution gives the legislative branch the power to decide how to temporarily fill vacancies in federal offices.

“We’re not taking power from the governor and giving it to the legislature,” Rudy said. “If anything we’re giving it to the people.”?

McConnell has held his U.S. Senate seat since 1984.