Since Alito and Roberts were added to the Court, McConnell has been involved in six attempts to dismantle campaign regulations. Six times he has prevailed. He filed amicus briefs in the cases of Randall v. Sorrell, Wisconsin Right to Life v. FEC, Citizens United v. FEC, McComish v. Bennett, and American Tradition Partnership, Inc. v. Bullock — all of which limited the state’s role in regulating campaign finances. In the McCutcheon case, he went one stage further, not only submitting a brief but also persuading the justices to allow his lawyer, Bobby Burchfield, to participate in oral arguments — an unusual request for the Court to grant, and a concession that demonstrates how interested in this subject the justices have been.

Congress, too, has changed its tune. “Just the other day,” McConnell tells me, “something I’ve wanted to do for 25 years was finally accomplished. We eliminated public funding for the national conventions. And President Obama signed it! We’re now moving in the opposite direction than before. The government doesn’t need to be micromanaging political speech; it doesn’t need to be funding political campaigns; and it certainly doesn’t need to be funding conventions.”