Kentucky Senate Race To Replace McConnell— Rep. Andy Barr Tosses His Hat Into The Ring

Cameron, Morris nd Barr

Senate Republicans have some over-the-top bitter primaries on the schedule for this cycle and another just got added— Kentucky. The nastiest ’til now are in Texas (Ken Paxton vs John Cornyn) and Louisiana (John Fleming vs Bill Cassidy). Kentucky has an open seat because Mitch McConnell is retiring. The front runner, former Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Daniel Cameron, got hi first formidable opponent yesterday: Congressman Andy Barr. There’s also a rich MAGAt, Nate Morris, a crony of Donal Trump Jr and JD Vance, ready to jump in.

Yesterday when Barr announced his campaign, Nick Corasaniti reported that the primary will revolve around two party titans— Señor Trumpanzyy and Miss McConnell— whose approval among conservatives has sharply diverged. The candidates will feel compelled to demonstrate their pro-Trump credentials as they jockey for the president’s coveted endorsement. That battle is poised to lead to increased public criticism of McConnell, whose popularity among Republican voters has taken a nosedive.” Barr ignored him in yesterday’s announcement video:

Instead it was all Trump, Trump, Trump. That may be a little trickier for Cameron, a McConnell protege, to pull off. “But, wrote Corasaniti, “while McConnell’s public image has worsened even in Kentucky, Republican operatives in the state say that voters and local leaders do not share Trump’s deep hostility toward the senator. Many, if not most, Republican elected officials in Kentucky owe political debts to McConnell for favors like connecting them with donors and for building the state party into a national force. So despite his unpopularity, bombastic attacks on him could turn off some voters and donors… But almost immediately after Cameron announced his Senate bid this February, his messaging on McConnell changed. In a video on social media, Cameron attacked his former mentor and repeatedly tried to align himself with Trump. ‘What we saw from Mitch McConnell in voting against Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard and R.F.K. was just flat-out wrong,’ Cameron said, referring to several top Trump appointees. ‘You should expect a senator from Kentucky to vote for those nominees to advance the America First agenda.’”

Trump has not weighed in yet on the race, though he had warm words for Barr at a White House event this month, saying: “Good luck with everything. I hear good things.”

But Barr already faces opposition from the Club for Growth Action, a conservative anti-tax group known for spending millions on political campaigns. Even before he announced his campaign, the group broadcast two commercials attacking him as an ally of the president’s enemies and labeling him a “Trump-hating, back-stabbing liberal.”

“Despite promising to bring fiscal responsibility to Washington, Andy Barr has voted to increase federal spending by trillions,” said David McIntosh, the president of Club for Growth Action. “Andy Barr would be a disaster in the Senate, and we will oppose his candidacy.”

In a statement on Tuesday, Cameron’s campaign echoed the criticism in the Club for Growth Action ads.

“The great Andy Barr rebrand is on, as he now will try and convince Kentucky he’s actually conservative and MAGA,” said Brandon Moody, a consultant for the Cameron campaign. “He’s not. Voters know he went to Washington and sold out Kentucky long ago.”

Barr enters the race with a sizable war chest, having raised $1.3 million in the first quarter to leave him with more than $5.3 million in cash on hand. Cameron raised about $500,000 in the month after his announcement and maintained most of that on hand, according to federal records.

His donors also include Kelly Craft, a coal billionaire who ran a bitter campaign against Cameron for governor in 2023.

The one Democrat who would have a shot to win the seat, and probably not a great shot, Governor Andy Beshear, has already announced he isn’t running, apparently more interested in the White House. Nor is Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman going to run for the Senate seat. That leaves House Minority Leader Pamela Stevenson as the likely Democratic Party sacrificial lamb.