As the contest turns nasty, onetime allies of Senate Republicans’ former leader are now seeking President Trump’s endorsement in a sign of how GOP politics have shifted.

The announced retirement of Senator Mitch McConnell, the erstwhile longest-serving Republican leader in Senate history and one of the most consequential lawmakers of his era, was not unexpected.

Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul — in lamenting brewing trade wars ... momentum and now it’s basically been stopped in its ...

Mitch McConnell (R-Ky ... And Trump issued a racially pointed insult to McConnell’s wife. McConnell didn’t fire back. The only public shot McConnell ever took at Trump came after the Jan ...

[Read: Mitch McConnell’s worst political miscalculation] Most of them ... as McConnell’s “China loving wife, Coco Chow.”) In turn, McConnell has described Trump as a “despicable human being,” “stupid ...

“I’m avoiding getting too high on the good days and too low on the bad days,” Mitch McConnell ... Secretary Elaine Chao, as McConnell’s “China loving wife, Coco Chow.”) ...

Trump once called Mitch McConnell's wife Elaine Chao ‘crazy’ – now she is appointed to the Kennedy Center (Photo by Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post, Chip Somodevilla/Pool Photo via AP ...

[Read: Mitch McConnell’s worst political miscalculation ... as McConnell’s “China loving wife, Coco Chow.”) In turn, McConnell has described Trump as a “despicable human being ...

We interviewed Democrats and Republicans — on the record and anonymously — about life on Capitol Hill, what broke Congress ...