WASHINGTON — Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who is preparing to step down as the longest-serving leader of the Senate and become a rank-and-file member again next year, will be focused on one of his biggest priorities: defense spending. 

The Kentucky Republican announced Thursday he’ll serve as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense and chairman of the Senate Rules Committee.

Political analyst and University of Kentucky associate professor Stephen Voss says the new role isn’t surprising, as McConnell looks to push back against what he sees as a shift toward isolationism in the GOP.  

“McConnell’s big project that he’s emphasized multiple times in speeches around Kentucky is that he wants to focus on foreign policy, that the United States has an important role to play in global affairs, and that McConnell is worried the Republican Party is becoming too isolationist, too willing to abandon the U.S. role in global affairs,” said Voss.

“America’s national security interests face the gravest array of threats since the Second World War,” McConnell said in a statement this week. “At this critical moment, a new Senate Republican majority has a responsibility to secure the future of U.S. leadership and primacy.”

“He sought these positions out, which to me is kind of the telltale sign that he does want to be involved,” said Casey Burgat, legislative affairs program director at The George Washington University. “He does want to have at least some influence and potential check on the former president, so I can’t imagine that incoming president Trump is all ecstatic about this, given that his foreign policy promises may not align with what Mitch McConnell’s history is and maybe what he wants his future to be, too.”

Republican senators elected McConnell’s number two, Sen. John Thune, R-SD, to take the helm as the Senate leader.

Some of President-Elect Donald Trump’s supporters had been pushing for Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., who tried unsuccessfully to bump McConnell from leadership in 2022.