McConnell had polio as a child and finds backslapping painful, so Chao has stepped in to hug constituents in his stead.
“She very actively listens. She really pays attention and remembers details about people,” Kelly Westwood, head of the Kenton County women’s Republican group, told Time in 2014. “She doesn’t see them for months and then says, ‘I know you sprained your arm, how’s it going?’ Or, ‘How’s [your] bid for city council going?’ She remembers everything.”
Chao has also starred in campaign ads defending McConnell’s record on women’s issues. In a 2014 campaign ad, she praised McConnell as a co-sponsor of the original Violence Against Women Act in 1991, despite the fact that, as Talking Points Memo pointed out, McConnell voted against the final legislation in 1993 and its reauthorizations in 2012 and 2013.
