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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., says one of his "highest priorities" is to take on the leading cause of preventable death in the United States: smoking.

McConnell has sponsored a bill, along with Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, that would 

 last month, McConnell said, "The sad reality is that Kentucky has been the home to the highest rates of cancer in the country. We lead the entire nation in the percentage of cancer cases tied directly to smoking."

 die every year from smoking -- roughly 24 people every day. Kentucky also spends $1.9 billion on smoking-related health problems like lung cancer, strokes and premature birth.

"Our state once grew tobacco like none other," said McConnell. "And now we're being hit by the health consequences of tobacco use like none other."

Still, McConnell noted, "I might seem like an unusual candidate to lead this charge."

For many public health advocates, that was a vast understatement.

An NPR review of McConnell's relationship with the tobacco industry over the decades has found that McConnell repeatedly cast doubt on the health consequences of smoking, repeated industry talking points word-for-word, attacked federal regulators at the industry's request and opposed bipartisan tobacco regulations going back decades.

The industry, in turn, has provided McConnell with millions of dollars in speaking fees, personal gifts, campaign contributions and charitable donations to the McConnell Center, which is home to his personal and professional archives.

One lobbyist for R.J. Reynolds called McConnell a 

Much of the relationship between McConnell and the tobacco industry happened behind the scenes. But the disclosure of millions of once-secret tobacco industry documents -- which are now 

 -- has opened a window into McConnell's interactions with tobacco executives and lobbyists.

Many of the records were first reported by the Lexington 

. Other documents on McConnell's relationships to the industry are being reported by NPR for the first time as part of a series produced by 

As a whole, ethics watchdogs say the documents raise questions about how McConnell is crafting legislation dealing with wealthy, powerful industries, even with millions of lives at stake. Cigarette smoking 

And, upon closer look, it appears McConnell's legislation to raise the tobacco purchase age actually followed the industry's lead.

Altria, the parent company of Philip Morris USA and a major stakeholder in the e-cigarette maker Juul,

 back in 2018. Several states and localities have already raised their tobacco purchase age.

NPR also found that vaping and tobacco companies are currently employing McConnell's 

 to lobby on their behalf. Lobbying groups frequently hire former staffers to top senators of both parties, though former top Senate staffers are prohibited from lobbying their old bosses within a year of leaving government.

In the month before McConnell announced his support for the measure, two government affairs executives at Altria donated to McConnell's Senate campaign.

A spokesperson for Altria did not respond to questions from NPR.

But multiple anti-smoking groups have raised concerns about McConnell's bill and the industry's support for the legislation. The Campaign For Tobacco-Free Kids 

 to the bill. And the Preventing Tobacco Addiction Foundation has announced its "strenuous opposition."

One concern for these groups is that the legislation will stave off tougher regulations on vaping, particularly regulations on flavored e-cigarettes.

"It's a Jedi mind trick," says Sharon Eubanks, who led the Justice Department's landmark racketeering case against the industry.

E-cigarette companies want to avoid liability for the youth vaping epidemic, says Eubanks, and "the industry's support for such measures gets them off the hook."

McConnell is "covering for them," says Dr. David Kessler, a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. Still, whatever the motivation, Kessler says he welcomes increasing the tobacco age to 21.

"I'll take it," he says. "But this is happening because the industry is in trouble."

In fact, the day of McConnell's announcement, a board member for the Vapor Technology Association, an industry trade association, 

"Hopefully, this will cause #FDA to reevaluate" tougher regulations on flavored e-cigarettes.

Later that month, members of the vaping industry trade group met with McConnell's staff.

A representative of the Vapor Technology Association did not respond to NPR's request for comment.

https://twitter.com/VaporLawyer/status/1122913675822673921

In an email, Georgeanna Sullivan, deputy press secretary for McConnell, wrote, "Senator McConnell's bipartisan Tobacco-Free Youth Act has been endorsed thus far by nearly 50 public health groups who share Leader McConnell and Democratic Senator Tim Kaine's goal of having less tobacco products in the hands of young people."

Kaine, like McConnell, represents a large tobacco-producing state, Virginia. But, 

, "what's more important than tobacco, by far, is the health of our young people. So it's the spike in youth smoking that I think has turned this into a matter of urgency."

McConnell's deputy press secretary also pointed out that McConnell helped craft the $10 billion tobacco buyout in the mid-2000s, which ended federal price supports for tobacco and led many tobacco farmers to switch to other crops.

"No one has done more to help transition Kentucky and our nation past tobacco culture than Senator McConnell," wrote Sullivan.

McConnell himself noted to NPR that both Republicans and Democrats in Kentucky fought hard for the tobacco industry.

"There was nobody not fighting for tobacco in Kentucky in that era," McConnell said. "Nobody."

A window into McConnell's contacts with tobacco lobbyists

Since he was first elected to the Senate in 1984, Mitch McConnell has vehemently opposed regulations of the tobacco industry -- from banning in-flight smoking, to allowing the FDA to regulate the industry, to including smoking in anti-drug school lesson plans.

To be sure, Kentucky's culture and economy have been intertwined with tobacco growing for decades. McConnell has argued that his support for the industry is because it employs tens of thousands of farmers in the state. "Farming tobacco put shoes on kids' feet," McConnell said in May. "It put dinner on the table." In the 1990s, tobacco contributed more than $2 billion annually to Kentucky's economy, according to the Louisville 

But the importance of tobacco to Kentucky can sometimes be overstated. The 

in 1998, "Despite Kentucky Lore, Tobacco Is Not King," noting that tobacco was only 3% of the overall state economy.

Regardless, the industry documents reveal the methods tobacco lobbyists used to gain favor with politicians from tobacco-growing states.

Soon after McConnell won a U.S. Senate seat, he was invited to the Tobacco Institute's boardroom to give a speech in January 1985.

The main lobbying organization for the tobacco industry at the time said it would also pay McConnell 

He continued to give paid speeches to the industry throughout the 1980s. 

In those days, it was legal for senators to take speaking fees -- called "honoraria" -- from corporations and lobbyists with business before Congress.

For McConnell, that included a winter retreat to a Tobacco Institute legislative conference in Palm Springs, Calif., with "an honorarium of $2,000, plus expenses," 

The documents also reveal that McConnell and his Senate office frequently accepted gifts from tobacco industry lobbyists, a practice which was also legal at the time.

McConnell often ended his thank you notes to tobacco lobbyists with an offer:

"Please feel free to call on me whenever I may be of assistance to you."

In response to NPR's questions about these gifts, a spokesperson for McConnell wrote, "these gifts were legal."

The email continued, "It is wrong to insinuate that Senator McConnell's support for Kentucky tobacco farmers was unique in an era where, regardless of party affiliation in Kentucky, with at least some tobacco grown in 119 out of 120 counties--and over 100,000 growers, everyone in the Kentucky Delegation was fighting for tobacco in Kentucky in that era."

Throughout this time, the industry also provided McConnell with major campaign contributions.

When McConnell has sought re-election, tobacco company employees and PACs have typically donated to McConnell more than to any other member of Congress, according to 

data from the Center For Responsive Politics

. Since 1989, he has received at least $650,000 in campaign contributions linked to the industry and solicited hundreds of thousands more in soft money donations to Republican Party committees.

Internally, the tobacco industry knew that its campaign contributions were difficult to refuse, even as public opinion shifted against them. "In the end, candidates act in their own self-interest," an internal 

 stated in 1996, "so few who have taken our money in the past will stop taking it."

In fact, the documents suggest McConnell was eager to solicit those contributions.

When lobbyists from R.J. Reynolds went to meet with McConnell in 1995, their 

 for the meeting stated, "Don't be surprised if he raises the need for [R.J. Reynolds] and the industry to help often and early. As we have done during his previous elections, we will provide maximum help early."

In one letter, McConnell said he was grateful for the support of the Tobacco Institute but was concerned that a "pledged contribution of $1,000" had not yet made it to his Senate campaign.

"It would be very helpful if you could check into this matter," 

, "and forward your contribution as soon as possible."

McConnell added by hand in the margins, "Hope to hear from you soon."

On top of campaign contributions, the industry also made major donations for the McConnell Center based at the University of Louisville. The center offers scholarships to college students, hosts lectures and holds McConnell's private archives.

For years, McConnell and the university fought to keep the identities of the donors to the center secret. But, in 2004, a lawsuit by the Louisville 

 newspaper forced the university to disclose who gave checks.

The disclosure revealed major contributions from tobacco companies: $200,000 from Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., $450,000 from Philip Morris, $500,000 from the RJR Nabisco Foundation, $14,000 from the Tobacco Institute, and $125,000 from U.S. Tobacco.

Ethics watchdogs say donations like that open the door to improperly influencing the political process.

"It is troubling," said Noah Bookbinder, the executive director of Citizens For Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

"The worry is the company is going to give money to the nonprofit, Sen. McConnell is going to know about that, and is going to be more disposed to be to look favorably on policies that help that company," Bookbinder said.

In fact, the tobacco documents reveal that R.J. Reynolds made sure McConnell personally knew about the donation to his McConnell Center. An R.J. Reynolds lobbyist sent a donation check not to the university, but to McConnell's 

One of the most striking episodes revealed in the tobacco industry documents came in October 1998, a midterm election year.

"[S]en. mcconnell just called me requesting 200,000 [dollars] soft," R.J. Reynolds lobbyist Tommy Payne emailed a colleague, referring to soft money contributions that were not limited by federal law.

Business and Economic News

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The Senate majority leader wants to raise the age for tobacco sales to 21. An NPR review of once-secret documents shows how closely McConnell has worked with the industry over decades.

Tobacco's 'special friend': What internal documents say about Mitch McConnell

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