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 co …