As Kentucky Republicans vie for office, Trump and McConnell loom over the races
Republished from Kentucky Lantern
SHEPHERDSVILLE — With a third Republican candidate entering the race for Kentucky’s open U.S. Senate seat next year, the jockeying for President Donald Trump’s backing is on.
While neither Trump nor longtime Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell will be on Kentucky’s ballot in 2026, their presences loom large over the next election cycle in the Bluegrass state.
Nate Morris, a Lexington businessman, appeared before a crowd of more than 1,200 with Turning Point USA founder and conservative media personality Charlie Kirk in the Bullitt County seat Monday morning. Morris announced his candidacy last week on Donald Trump Jr.’s podcast.
Morris, along with Republicans U.S. Rep. Andy Barr and former Attorney General Daniel Cameron, are hoping to succeed McConnell, who announced he would not seek reelection earlier this year. McConnell’s rise to power in 1984 ushered in the Republican Party of Kentucky’s rise to political dominance in the commonwealth. However, McConnell has lost voters’ approval in recent years.
Morris hopes to court Republican voters who are unhappy with McConnell’s tenure. During the Monday rally, Morris called on the Republican Party of Kentucky to deny McConnell a lifetime achievement award.
Morris also took issue with a letter from the state Republican party to candidates ahead of the annual Lincoln Day Dinner set for August. Morris said the letter asked candidates to not “speak ill of Republicans that are not running for office.” That would include McConnell, who Morris added is set to receive a lifetime achievement award during the dinner.
“I am calling on the Republican Party of Kentucky to rescind the lifetime achievement award for Mitch McConnell,” Morris said to applause from the crowd. “And I’m asking the other two guys in the race, Daniel Cameron and Andy Barr, to do the same thing. And if they won’t, I want to hear why.”
Morris dropped his first TV ad Friday morning, saying he is “here to take out the trash,” including McConnell’s. Morris, who rides a garbage truck and picks up trash in the ad, founded waste and recycling company Rubicon.
After the rally, a spokesman for the Republican Party of Kentucky told the Kentucky Lantern that the letter “was simply a request — not an attempt to police candidates’ speech.” Political parties often do not back candidates until a nominee is chosen for a general election.
Kirk throughout the rally criticized McConnell, particularly for not backing Trump in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. McConnell, as the Senate Republican leader, later called the event “a violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election.” McConnell disputed Trump’s claims that he won the 2020 election and has been an opponent of U.S. isolationism and a strong supporter of Ukraine in its war with Russia, in contrast to Trump on the campaign trail last year. McConnell also voted against confirming Trump’s Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Trump has criticized McConnell multiple times over the years, even though McConnell played a key role in confirming the Supreme Court justices who have been upholding some of Trump’s controversial actions.
“He’s willing to actually call out the McConnell mafia that have been running this state for so long,” Kirk said of Morris.
The Republican candidates have been trying to distance themselves from McConnell in hopes that a Trump endorsement in Kentucky — a state that the president has carried since the 2016 election — would bring the seal of approval from the state’s GOP voters.
Meanwhile, Trump has his eyes on another Bluegrass Republican — U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie of the 4th Congressional District. In recent weeks, Massie has become a thorn in the president’s side, by opposing Trump’s domestic policy bill and criticizing the strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Trump’s political allies have launched a PAC to wage a primary war against the Northern Kentucky congressman, starting with a $1 million ad buy.
When asked about Trump’s involvement in Massie’s primary after his own rally, Morris said Republicans have “to stand with the president, period.”
“We got to get along as a party,” Morris said. “We’ve got the political winds at our back, and we’ve got to use this momentum to get stuff done and get the agenda done that the people of Kentucky voted for.”
State Rep. T.J Roberts, R-Burlington, said before Morris’ rally that “Thomas Massie has my complete and total endorsement.” Roberts, who was elected to the state House in 2024, has close ties to the congressman.
“He really represented MAGA before MAGA was even a thing,” Roberts said of Massie. “He has consistently worked to fulfill President Trump’s agenda, and I really hope that the two can get back to working together. I stand with President Trump, I stand with Congressman Massie, and I don’t think it’s difficult to stand with both.”
On the U.S. Senate race, Roberts said he views the election as a chance to allow the Kentucky GOP to “choose its new path forward.” Roberts said that he doesn’t think “it’s truly possible to move past someone who really built the infrastructure,” like McConnell, but today’s Republicans are more conservative than they have been in recent decades. Roberts, one of the young members of the state legislature, added that his generation has been impacted by a growing national debt and inflation as the result of a government that “has consistently ignored the young.”
“Yeah, we’re absolutely moving on, and it’s time to make sure that young Americans get their representation in Washington, D.C., get their representation in Frankfort,” Roberts said. “I think my election was a show of that, and I think 2026 is going to be a show of that, too.”
Another GOP state lawmaker, Rep. Josh Calloway, of Irvington, said that he is “excited about a once in a 40-year opportunity” with the open U.S. Senate seat for Republican voters. The result could have implications not just for Kentucky, but the nation as a whole.
“People are flocking in here,” Calloway said as attendees looked for seats before the rally. “Charlie Kirk is here. And yeah, things have changed in Kentucky to some degree.”
Morris doubts that his McConnell bashing will turn away Kentucky Republicans or hurt his campaign.
“Look, I think that the numbers speak for themselves. I’ve seen them,” Morris told reporters. “Mitch McConnell is one of the least popular politicians in the history of America, and I think here in Kentucky, I don’t think it’s any different.”
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