The Price of Power - by Michael Tackett

Book Synopsis

The first definitive biography of Mitch McConnell, revealing an intimate look at the personal and political life of one of the most powerful senators in American history.

In the long history of American government, few senators have wielded as much power as Kentucky's Mitch McConnell. That's no accident; he worked his entire life to cultivate his dominance.

In The Price of Power, award-winning journalist Michael Tackett pulls back the curtain on one of the most influential figures to ever set foot in the American Senate, offering you an intimate, personal view of his life and career. Drawing on thousands of pages of archival materials, letters, and more than 100 interviews with associates, colleagues, and McConnell himself, Tackett pieces together the story of McConnell's early life, his formative battle with polio as a young child, and details his forty-plus-year career as one of the Senate's most impactful leaders.

A lifelong Republican, McConnell was known as a pragmatic moderate legislator when he joined the Senate in 1985. Tackett traces his steady rightward drift, as McConnell's politics evolved with his masterful ability to consolidate and wield power. But such success comes at a cost. The Trump years brought with them the rise of an almost unrecognizable Republican party, suffused with a reactive populism that even McConnell himself would struggle to control.

Featuring expert reporting, unprecedented access, and never-before-published revelations, The Price of Power is an inside portrait of exactly that--what it takes to achieve power, maintain it, deploy it, and, finally, watch it slip out of your hands.

Review Quotes

"Highly readable...A staunchly evenhanded narrative from the perspective of a perceptive and knowledgeable outsider."--Jean Parvin Bordewich, Washington Monthly

"Tackett's riveting and inspirational book is a valuable contribution and a must-read...a superb reminder that politics is the art of the possible."--Kelly D. Johnston, Against the Grain

"The most comprehensive and fair-minded account of McConnell's life and career."--Ira Shapiro, Washington Independent

"[A] fine, evenhanded McConnell biography"--George F. Will, Washington Post

"Fascinating...A superb insider's portrait of the sphinx of the Senate."--Kirkus

"Detailed and informative biography... assiduously researched..."--Jacob Heilbrunn, Washington Post

"Excellent...A very important book."--Wolf Blitzer, The Situation Room

"Here is the story of arguably the most consequential leader of the United States Senate in American history. Drawing on remarkable access to Mitch McConnell and to the senator's lifetime of papers, Michael Tackett has given us a clear-eyed account of a lawmaker and a politician who, for better or for worse, has fundamentally shaped the way we live now."--Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer

About the Author

Michael Tackett is an award-winning journalist with more than three decades of experience covering national politics, including nine presidential elections. He is currently the Deputy Washington Bureau Chief for the Associated Press. Before that, he was an editor and reporter for The New York Times, Washington Bureau Chief for both Bloomberg News and the Chicago Tribune, and National Editor for US News & World Report. He is a recipient of the White House Correspondents Association's Edgar A. Poe Award for National Reporting. His first book, The Baseball Whisperer, tells the story of a summer league baseball team in Clarinda, Iowa, that helped shape dozens of major league players. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia.