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Kentucky Politics Insider: Trump, McConnell play nice & is Scott Jennings in for Senate?
Kentucky Politics Insider: Trump, McConnell play nice & is Scott Jennings in for Senate?

Yahoo

time23-07-2025

  • Politics
  • Yahoo

Kentucky Politics Insider: Trump, McConnell play nice & is Scott Jennings in for Senate?

Kentucky Politics Insider offers an analysis of Kentucky politics and the conversations that drive decisions. Email reporter Austin Horn at ahorn@ or ping him on social media sites with tips or comments. Given their long history of working together — filled with ups and downs — it wouldn't be totally accurate to call Sen. Mitch McConnell and President Donald Trump 'strange bedfellows.' But it is notable that McConnell has boosted Trump's most recent legislative effort. McConnell was a key ally in Trump's push to pass his far-reaching budget bill, which extended many tax cuts and cut spending on Medicaid, among other things. Though McConnell has supported the large majority of the president's initiatives, the two have traded harsh words since Trump left office after his first term. Trump has used a variety of derogatory terms to refer to McConnell, calling him 'dumb' and insinuating he had a 'death wish' for supporting a piece of legislation Democrats also backed. In this term, Trump has also reserved sharp criticism for McConnell for his opposition to the confirmation of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for health secretary. In private, McConnell called the president a 'despicable human being' and a 'narcissist,' according to a recent biography of the senator. The latest chapter in the hot-and-cold relationship took a warm turn, highlighted with McConnell's social media post of a photo with Trump. 'I enjoyed celebrating the passage of One Big Beautiful Bill with President Trump and Senate Republicans tonight at the White House dinner,' McConnell posted to X Friday. Jennings still flirtatious When it comes to discussing the 2026 race for U.S. Senate, don't forget about Scott Jennings. The prominent pundit, who has risen to conservative celebrity status during the Biden and Trump years, made sure that won't happen with his recent comments on a conservative podcast. Eric Bolling, the host, mentioned that 'a lot of people' had been talking about Jennings' potential as a candidate for U.S. Senate. This is true, though talk has cooled somewhat since the field has solidified into three prominent Republicans: Rep. Andy Barr, former AG Daniel Cameron and Lexington tech entrepreneur Nate Morris. The Dawson Springs native demurred in his response, saying he 'hasn't made any announcements about that,' and mentioning that he knew all three of the big name candidates well. He was pretty clear on what, or who, could bring him into the fold. 'I do think politics is a team sport. I think Trump's the head coach and eventually he's gonna weigh in on this,' Jennings said. 'My political advice would be to anybody 'If he calls a play, we're gonna have to run it, and I wouldn't want to run against the president in Kentucky.'' When pressed on if he'd run if Trump tapped him for the seat, Jennings was straightforward: 'I pay close attention to everything the president says.' Morris full of 'it' The contest for the Republican nomination to U.S. Senate has continued to heat up over the last week. The biggest case in point: an ad war between Morris and a political action committee supporting Barr. Continuing with his focus on McConnell, Morris' latest ad displays Cameron and Barr as literal puppets of McConnell. It claims that the two 'stuck with' McConnell when he 'pushed for amnesty for' undocumented immigrants. McConnell has actually been a steadfast opponent of amnesty for undocumented immigrants throughout his Senate career, as evidenced by his comments and votes over the years. The reference to 'amnesty,' according to a Morris spokesperson, comes from McConnell's support for a 2024 bipartisan immigration reform bill that Trump opposed. Most references to 'amnesty' in that bill relate to a section that only allowed an emergency expulsion authority to fully activate when an average of 5,000 or more people entered the country illegally during a seven-day period, opening it up to such criticism when fewer than that number entered. Still, there was no amnesty for undocumented immigrants in the bill. 'I'm sick of watching the elites give handouts to illegals while working-class families struggle,' Morris said in the ad. 'I'll lead the fight against amnesty by stopping all immigration until we deport every single illegal immigrant in America.' Morris has made leaning far right on immigration a part of his platform, calling for a complete moratorium on all immigration for a limited time. He closed stating that he was 'a Trump guy, not a McConnell boy.' The ad is supported by a 'seven-figure' overall television advertising campaign, Morris' spokesperson said. Meanwhile, the political action committee working to help elect Barr is hard at work to bring down Morris' reputation among Republican voters before the first-time candidate even becomes a household name. Focusing on the allegedly 'fake' nature of Morris, the ad from Keep America Great PAC homes in on Morris' business past. It references various actions taken on the subject of diversity. 'As a CEO, Morris was so woke, he signed a pledge promising to support DEI, his company even published a list of gay-owned stores and told employees to shop there,' the ad states. It ends with an expletive-punctuated refrain: 'Fake Nate Morris, fully woke, and full of s—.' Dembo's big haul It's always a head-turning event when a newcomer to politics launches a professional campaign for office. Newly-minted Democratic candidate for Kentucky's 6th Congressional District Zach Dembo did it again on Monday when he announced that he'd raised more than $160,000 just three days after launching his campaign. Let's first acknowledge that candidates very often get their campaign contributions lined up well before they actually enter the race. A quick burst of donations right after announcing is nothing new in politics. But $160,000 is an impressive haul for a first-time candidate. We won't know how the full amount Dembo brings in compares to his peers until the next campaign finance deadline coming up in October. Former Democratic House Caucus Chair Cherlynn Stevenson and former Lexington-Fayette Urban County Councilman David Kloiber both posted respectable numbers in their June 30 reports, with Stevenson leading and Kloiber's personal wealth meaning he could put in much more. Money isn't everything in Central Kentucky politics, though. Kloiber himself far outspent Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton in 2022 when he challenged her from his city council perch, but Gorton marched to an easy reelection victory.

Kentucky Politics Insider: Is another '26 Senate campaign announcement coming soon?
Kentucky Politics Insider: Is another '26 Senate campaign announcement coming soon?

Yahoo

time25-06-2025

  • Business
  • Yahoo

Kentucky Politics Insider: Is another '26 Senate campaign announcement coming soon?

Kentucky Politics Insider offers an analysis of Kentucky politics and the conversations that drive decisions. Email reporter Austin Horn at ahorn@ or ping him on social media sites with tips or comments. A long-rumored candidate for U.S. Senate in Kentucky was spotted recently in Shelbyville alongside all the trappings of a political ad shoot: a large filming crew, a trailer, a sunny day shot of him on an idyllic downtown sidewalk. It might be just a matter of time before Nate Morris, a tech entrepreneur based in Lexington, lets us in on what that video shoot was all about. Politicians often announce either just before the quarterly fundraising deadlines — the most recent one closes Monday, June 30 — in order to either show a strong fundraising burst ('we raised $1 million in 5 days,' etc.) or just after to give them a full three months to rake in the donations before going public with the amount they've raised. Morris should have little problem with the initial funding. In 2022 alone, Morris was compensated more than $40 million by his company Rubicon before it went public. That year he left the company, whose profitability has cratered in recent months. A healthy amount of initial funding, or at least anticipated funding, seems clear based on the size of the film crew at his Shelbyville shoot. At least nine people were spotted helping out in a photo shot by a tipster. Should the shoot presage a run for the office, Morris would be joining two Kentucky GOP heavyweights in the race to replace Sen. Mitch McConnell, who earlier this year announced he would not seek reelection in 2026. Sixth Congressional District Rep. Andy Barr and former Attorney General Daniel Cameron both announced bids earlier this year. Also of note: Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, a star of the online conservative movement, is set to appear in Shepherdsville for 'a rally' on June 30. Morris has carved out something of a lane among Republicans of a similar generation and posture, like President Donald Trump's son Donald Trump, Jr and Vice President JD Vance. Don't be surprised if Morris is there — or if his candidacy is the point of the rally. A spokesperson for Morris has yet to comment on the purpose of the filming. The headlines have mostly been reserved for Rep. Thomas Massie, whose stance against Trump's actions in Iran have earned him greater fame and fierce ire from the president. But POLITICO reported a fairly consequential bit of news on Kentucky's junior senator over the weekend: Senate Republicans have sidelined him in discussions over funding portions of Trump's marquee budget bill, known as the 'Big, Beautiful Bill.' Normally, Paul's perch as chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee would allow him to lead talks related to the agencies he helps oversee. Not so, said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, the senior Republican who is taking Paul's place in those discussions. It comes as a result of Paul, a deficit and spending hawk, proposing much lower spending on border security than was initially in the massive budget bill. 'Senator Paul usually votes 'no' and blames everybody else for not being pure enough,' Graham told POLITICO in an interview. 'As chairman, you … don't have that luxury sometimes. You have to do things as chairman you wouldn't have to do as a rank-and-file member.' All Republicans vying for McConnell's seat in 2026 have been singing from the same hymnal: agreeing heartily with Trump. But it's possible the latest conflict in the Middle East could work to pry the candidates from one another, if only slightly. We even got a flash of that in the early days of the Iran-Israel war, when Barr's team saw an opportunity to tout their pro-Trump bona fides before Cameron and Morris had weighed in. A release from last week was titled 'Barr Blasts KY GOP Senate Opponents for Silence on Israel, Pledges to Stand with Trump.' He called his opponents' relative silence at the time 'deafening.' Later, both Cameron and Morris began making public statements in support of the military action and diplomatic tack the Trump administration oversaw. 'Not a single American soldier lost. No endless war in the Middle East. Just a historic ceasefire agreement,' Cameron wrote recently. Morris wrote that Trump deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for his maneuvering. While you've seen more unanimity in recent days, one of the key points of Massie's recent rebellion against Trump's foreign policy is that a big chunk of the GOP is now non-interventionist and didn't like engaging with Iran. If he's right, might one of the three big GOP candidates seek to court that crowd? On the Democratic side of things, Kentucky House Minority Floor Leader Pam Stevenson, who is also running for McConnell's seat, stood against Trump's action in Iran. 'The American people are deeply opposed to another war. Congress knows it. They would never have approved an escalation this unplanned and geopolitically reckless,' Stevenson wrote in a social media post Saturday. McConnell may not be GOP leader anymore, but he's still making headlines with his recent comments over potential cuts to Medicaid spending. According to a report from Punchbowl News, McConnell said Tuesday during a closed-door Senate GOP meeting that voters would 'get over' spending cuts proposed to Medicaid in the proposed budget bill currently in the Senate's possession. 'I know a lot of us are hearing from people back home about Medicaid. But they'll get over it,' McConnell said, according to the outlet, also adding that 'failure isn't an option.' McConnell's speech came during a debate among GOP senators over the political viability of the cuts, which have not been finalized. North Carolina GOP Sen. Thom Tillis warned that cuts could politically backfire on Republicans. Kentucky is relatively dependent on Medicaid, with the Eastern Kentucky-centric 5th Congressional District having the 11th-most Medicaid enrollees of all 435 U.S. House districts in the country. A McConnell spokesperson later clarified the senator's comments, saying that he was speaking about people abusing Medicaid. 'Sen. McConnell was speaking about the people who are abusing Medicaid — the able-bodied Americans who should be working — and the need to withstand Democrats' scare tactics when it comes to Medicaid,' the spokesperson wrote. 'Sen. McConnell was urging his fellow members to highlight that message to our constituents and remind them that we should all be against waste, fraud, and abuse while working to protect our rural hospitals and have safety nets in place for people that need it.' As GOP leader — a post he held until this year, longer than any senator of either party — McConnell was Democrats' favorite Republican to hate. Several Democrats quickly pounced on his comments Tuesday. ''They'll get over it' is what Mitch McConnell has to say to the 16 million Americans who will have their health care terminated because of this disastrous Republican bill,' Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin wrote on social media. 'Republicans might not care if our constituents have health care, but I do.' The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which has signaled it will get involved in Kentucky's 6th Congressional District race in 2026, chimed in as well. 'The most senior Kentucky Republican in D.C. wants workers and families in Kentucky to just 'get over' him and House Republicans ripping health care coverage away from 170,000 Kentuckians,' spokesperson Madison Andrus wrote in a statement to the Herald-Leader. 'That's not going to happen — and come next November, those Kentuckians will make sure House Republicans lose their majority over it.' The Democratic primary for the open 6th Congressional District seat in 2026 now has two viable contenders in former Lexington-Fayette Urban County Councilman David Kloiber and former House Democratic Caucus Chair Cherlynn Stevenson. Stevenson, whose connections are naturally more statewide due to her prominence in Frankfort, just scored perhaps the biggest endorsement of the primary so far: Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman. While it's certainly a big deal for Stevenson, who is close friends with the lieutenant governor, it may be an even more important test for Coleman. Coleman is generally believed to be eyeing a run for governor in 2027. Same goes for, at this moment in time, Rocky Adkins, a household name in Kentucky Democratic politics and current adviser to Gov. Andy Beshear. While Coleman has proven a good Democrat who will show up for her colleagues in a general election, the Stevenson endorsement gives her an opportunity to flex her political muscle in a primary setting — a setting perhaps not so unlike the one she may face if both she and Adkins hop in the gubernatorial election. On picking Stevenson, Coleman said she spoke with the candidate early in the process before anyone else had decided to run. She added the race was so important to her because it includes her native Mercer County and she herself had discussions about potentially joining. 'It was an honor for people to try to encourage me to consider this, but ultimately, I decided that D.C. is not where I want to be,' Coleman told the Herald-Leader in an interview. Does that mean she's ready to run for governor? 'For me, it has to be the right time and situation, and that's why I'm taking a good, hard look at it,' she said. 'None of us can tell the future, but it's going to be a big landscape change in Kentucky, with all of the retirements, moving from one seat to another, and all of the folks who are elected running for other seats now. So it's going to look different, but none of us know how yet. 'This is something that I believe that I should take a serious look at, and so that's what I've been doing — mainly listening, doing less talking and more listening.'

KY Politics Insider: A legitimate Democratic challenger for Rep. Hal Rogers?
KY Politics Insider: A legitimate Democratic challenger for Rep. Hal Rogers?

Yahoo

time28-05-2025

  • Business
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KY Politics Insider: A legitimate Democratic challenger for Rep. Hal Rogers?

Kentucky Politics Insider offers an analysis of Kentucky politics and the conversations that drive decisions. Email reporter Austin Horn at ahorn@ or ping him on social media sites with tips or comments. Rep. Hal Rogers is accustomed to landslide victories. Only once in 23 congressional elections has an opponent even come within single digits: The late state Sen. John Doug Hays lost to Rogers by about nine percentage points in 1992. Rogers, whose 5th Congressional District covers most of Eastern Kentucky and parts of Southern Kentucky, has dominated every other general election contest by 30 points or more. Despite this, it sure sounds like someone with a legitimate background in politics and public service will give it a try in 2026. Ned Pillersdorf is a Prestonsburg attorney known for his involvement in several high-profile cases and the campaigns of his wife, former Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Janet Stumbo. 'The Democratic Party is certainly encouraging me to run. I'm seriously considering it, and I'll have an announcement on the Fourth of July,' Pillersdorf said. Pillersdorf, 70, is known in Eastern Kentucky for several reasons. Perhaps most notably, he led an effort to recruit lawyers to represent people who faced losing Social Security disability benefits as a result of the biggest disability scam in U.S. history, the long-running, massive fraud perpetrated by Eric C. Conn. For that effort, Pillersdorf won a 'Pro Bono Publico Award' in 2023, being one of just four American Bar Association members earning the honor. He also litigated on behalf of coal miners who went on strike at the Blackjewel mine site in Harlan County. The Pillersdorf name has also stayed in the news throughout the region, whether that be in his legal capacity, helping run political campaigns for his wife, or speaking out in support of the animal shelter he helped found, the Dewey Dam Dog and Cat Protection Society. Pillersdorf framed his potential candidacy as a reaction to Rogers' vote in favor of the House bill extending Trump-backed tax cuts that mostly benefit the wealthy and cuts spending on Medicaid and food stamps. Rogers has defended his vote as 'strengthening' Medicaid by targeting fraud and abuse. But Pillersdorf has insisted it amounts to political 'treason' for the vulnerable in the district, which is one of the most Medicaid-reliant out of all 435 districts in the country. 'If there's one Congressional district where the Medicaid cuts resonate in the country, this is it,' he said. 'I am clear-eyed, I know what the Republican votes were in the last election… but if Rogers runs again, and I assume he is, he needs a viable, well-financed opponent.' Rogers has previously told the Herald-Leader he has 'every intention of running for reelection.' At 87, he is the oldest member of the House. Age, a hot topic in Washington as the fallout over former President Joe Biden's deterioration continues to reverberate, could become an issue. Additionally, three members of Congress, all in their 70s, have died so far this year. Biden is currently 82 years old. Rogers, at 87, would be 89 if he wins reelection to start his 24th term in Congress. 'I'm 70, and I'm in excellent health,' Pillersdorf added. It's no secret that President Donald Trump wants 4th Congressional District Rep. Thomas Massie gone. Multiple times during the early days of his term, most recently over the Northern Kentucky congressman's vote against the president's budget bill, Trump has said that Massie should be primaried. Last week, national news outlet Axios reported that two Kentucky Republicans in the district were being discussed as GOP opponents for the seven-term congressman. One of them, state Sen. Aaron Reed, responded quickly on social media: 'Fake news,' he wrote. The other, state Rep. Kim Moser, did not respond to a Herald-Leader inquiry about her future plans. Moser, a powerful committee chair in Frankfort, survived a close primary in 2024 to an opponent far less-funded than she was. It's worth pointing out point blank: Previous efforts to oust Massie have failed tremendously. The difference this time could be money. We know that outside groups like MAGA Inc., the pro-Trump $500 million group, and the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee seem willing to chip in some. But how much would it take to unseat the House's most famous GOP contrarian? Probably a lot. Massie seems to think nobody could beat him. 'Any serious person considering running should spend money on an independent poll before letting swampy consultants take them for an embarrassing ride,' Massie wrote in a comment provided to the Herald-Leader. Rep. Andy Barr unveiled a list of county judge-executive endorsements for his 2026 Senate bid last week that spanned basically the entirety of his Central Kentucky based district — only a couple GOP judge-executives, those over Anderson County and Clark County, didn't endorse him. As a reminder, judge-executives matter. A lot. Unless a county has a member of legislative leadership, or its one of the two consolidated local governments in Jefferson and Fayette counties, it's a safe bet that the judge-executive is the most important elected official there. They act as the head of the executive and legislative branches of county government. But how much do their endorsements matter? Potentially a lot, but in big GOP races like this one there's a wrinkle: They pale in comparison to the endorsement of Trump. Just ask former commissioner of agriculture Ryan Quarles, who earned the support of dozens of them across the state in his 2023 run for governor but finished in a distant second to the Trump-backed former attorney general, Daniel Cameron, who is now running against Barr for Senate. On the Democratic side of the aisle, former state representative Cherlynn Stevenson announced several local official and ex-local official endorsements. Some big names on there include Sen. Reggie Thomas, D-Lexington, who previously ran for the seat and whose Senate district covers most of Lexington inside New Circle Road; former judge and legislator Ernesto Scorsone; most of her old Lexington House colleagues; Lexington city Councilwoman Emma Curtis and more. If it wasn't clear already, these endorsements provide another sign that the state party's two biggest stars below Gov. Andy Beshear — Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman and senior adviser Rocky Adkins — will not jump in this race. All signs point to the continued interest of both former Lexington-Fayette Urban County Councilman David Kloiber and federal prosecutor Zach Dembo for the Democratic nomination to the district, which the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee put on a target list to potentially flip blue. Currently, state Rep. Ryan Dotson is the only Republican with significant name ID to have announced a bid to fill Barr's shoes in the 6th Congressional District. But a couple others certainly appear to be making moves. State Sen. Amanda Mays Bledsoe, R-Lexington, visited Israel in an eight-day trip that concluded this weekend, according to several social media posts. The trip was made with a number of politically influential Republicans, including a Fox News personality once floated as a potential replacement for Vice President J.D. Vance's Senate seat and another state legislator. Sponsored trips like these often take place with groups of influential people seen as a rising crop of political leaders. Though Bledsoe did not offer comment on the sponsor of the trip, the most common host for U.S. political trips to Israel is the American Israel Education Foundation, a nonprofit linked to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Bledsoe wasn't the only busy one last week. State Rep. Deanna Gordon, R-Richmond, spent part of the week in political meetings with Republicans in Washington, someone affiliated with Gordon confirmed to the Herald-Leader. The primary comes at a time when Trump has incentive to weigh in on House primaries, specifically. Holding a majority there means avoiding investigations and potentially a third impeachment inquiry into him. Axios reported this week that the White House is particularly 'worried about retaining the Central Kentucky seat' given Barr's departure. That could signal an increased willingness for Trump to put his thumb on the scale for his favored candidate, or the one his team sees as the most likely to win.

Kentucky Politics Insider: A Grimes comeback? Vibes at Barr launch & Beshear latest
Kentucky Politics Insider: A Grimes comeback? Vibes at Barr launch & Beshear latest

Yahoo

time29-04-2025

  • Politics
  • Yahoo

Kentucky Politics Insider: A Grimes comeback? Vibes at Barr launch & Beshear latest

Spring is the time for new things. For us at the Herald-Leader, one of those new things is what you're reading now: The Kentucky Politics Insider. This will be a new feature from me, senior politics reporter Austin Horn, published at least every two weeks. You want to know more about Kentucky's political scene? I aim to bring an insider's perspective. Expect analysis on the biggest political stories in our commonwealth, under-the-radar news items that drive decisions, in-depth on-scene reporting and a synthesis of the insider political conversation brought directly to you. You'll learn a lot, I promise. And I hope it sparks a statewide conversation — or even just a conversation with your co-workers. This endeavor will work a little differently than what readers are used to from me. The tone will read more conversational, and that's on purpose because much of what I'm presenting is, indeed, the product of conversation. The form fits the content. But what I'll promise to you is this: Nothing short of my best and a clear-eyed analysis of the fast-moving developments that define Kentucky politics. So let's strike up that conversation. Tell me what you like, dislike or what I missed. Any of your thoughts on Kentucky politics — local, state or federal — I'm all ears. Please email me at ahorn@ or ping me on any one of the various social media sites. Onto the latest from this Kentucky Politics Insider: Things are bustling behind-the-scenes as it relates to Kentucky's 6th District. The prospective field in the Congressional district now that Rep. Andy Barr is going for the Senate seat to be abandoned by Mitch McConnell in 2026 has been much-discussed in Kentucky political circles and in the Herald-Leader. Here's an update on the Democratic side of things. Speculation has abounded about Rocky Adkins, the senior political adviser to Beshear, and former state representative Cherlynn Stevenson, in particular. Stevenson, the Lexington Democrat, now seems the more likely of those two to jump in. Some new names to watch: Zach Dembo, David Kloiber and Alison Lundergan Grimes. Kloiber was the only one to confirm interest directly to me. He said he's 'seriously considering and looking into it.' As a member of Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council, Kloiber ran a 2022 campaign in an attempt to unseat Mayor Linda Gorton. He made it to the primary, but fell short with just 29% of the vote to Gorton's 71%. Kloiber has the potential to tap into a large family fortune for a run. He spent more than $630,000 of his own money on the run against Gorton. Dembo is a federal prosecutor in Lexington who worked a stint in Beshear's office during the governor's first term. He declined to comment for this story. You might have heard of that final name before. Grimes was once one of the most prominent Democrats in the state, and at 46, she's got plenty of time to become one again. A two-term Kentucky Secretary of State, Grimes ran to unseat McConnell in 2014. She's the daughter of Jerry Lundergan, a titan of Democratic politics who's continued to make headlines through his legal battles. Lundergan was convicted in 2018 for contributions made through a corporation to his daughter's Senate bid. Former President Joe Biden pardoned him in one of his final acts as president in January. Grimes was no stranger to controversy herself. In a saga that ended with her being cleared of all charges and fines, the Executive Branch Ethics Commission had charged her with violation of state ethics code for ordering the downloading and distribution of voter registration data from her public office as secretary of state. Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd reversed the commission's decision in a ruling last year. His ruling was later affirmed by a Court of Appeals opinion in March. The commission did not appeal the opinion to the Kentucky Supreme Court, ending the legal battle between the two parties. Grimes, a Lexington resident whose name ID is likely still high in the district, did not respond to my messages or calls on this topic. Nonetheless, her name is being floated by some in political circles as a potential candidate. It is worth noting that U.S. Rep. Andy Barr's event last week launching his 2026 candidacy for U.S. Senate was, by all traditional measures of success, well done. More than 200 people crowded the Richmond event venue where it was held. Energy, from the crowd and the candidate himself, was high. The staging was put together neatly. And in the crowd were quite a few elected officials. Of course, the big endorsement news of Barr's launch was someone who wasn't there: longtime Southern and Eastern Kentucky Rep. Hal Rogers. Rogers, who's earned the Dean of the U.S. House designation for being the longest continuously serving member of the House, has represented the 5th Congressional District for more than 40 years. But Rogers wasn't the only prominent person, elected or not, to endorse Barr. Sen. Phillip Wheeler, R-Pikeville, was one of more than 200 people on scene at Barr's campaign launch, donning a freshly-printed 'Barr for Senate' hat. Wheeler has known Barr since he first got to Transylvania University as an 18-year-old. Barr was, at the time, the Fayette County Young Republicans chair. 'He's just a really good guy, and somebody who doesn't forget you, even from way back,' Wheeler said. 'That counts for me. He's a good man to stick with you, so I'm sticking with that.' That personal element permeated other Republican state lawmakers, current and former, who backed Barr at the event. They included, but weren't limited to, Rep. Kim King of Harrodsburg, Sen. Scott Madon of Hazard, former Nicholasville representative Killian Timoney and several more. King thought Barr's relationship-building across the state would pay dividends. 'He has a lot of friends all across the state that are just itching to get him in their doors and in their neighborhoods to introduce him to their people,' King said. Braden Lacefield, a Woodford County High School senior who serves as co-chair of the High School Republican National Federation, made another practical argument for Barr: Central Kentucky is where you win the state. 'You've got to look at an election from the general election aspect through the primary, and Andy Barr is overall the best candidate to win for Republicans,' Lacefield said. 'He's clearly over-performed in central Kentucky compared to most other Republicans, and that's really where this race is going to be won.' The question with Barr's local endorsements is this: Do they even matter anymore? Former commissioner of agriculture Ryan Quarles, who came in second to former attorney general Daniel Cameron for the 2023 GOP gubernatorial nomination, locked in 235-plus endorsements from state representatives and local electeds — far more than Cameron. But Cameron had the endorsement of then-former President Donald Trump, and that proved the most important by far in his 48% rout over the crowded and well-funded field. In this latest statewide primary, Cameron, who was the first to announce a bid to replace Sen. Mitch McConnell, doesn't have Trump's endorsement. Nobody does — at least not yet. Trump, however, posted to Truth Social, his own social media platform, a link to a recent Barr op-ed praising him after 100 days in office. The president had posted a handful of similar works by GOP members of Congress. It's worth keeping in mind that in other recent contests, Trump has endorsed multiple candidates at once — something many Kentucky Republicans could see happening in this race. Vice President JD Vance, however, recently shared a social media post Nate Morris wrote about McConnell. Morris, a Lexington tech entrepreneur widely seen as a potential candidate surveying the race, is friends with the vice president. But beyond local support, Barr got some early help from national GOP figures. Riley Gaines, a former University of Kentucky swimmer who has gained prominence in the party for her crusade against transgender women participating in women's sports, gave Barr her full endorsement one day after his campaign launch. Markwayne Mullin, a U.S. Senator from Oklahoma, also gave Barr the nod 'to get our MAGA agenda across the finish line' in a video endorsement posted the same day. While some Republicans still seemed convinced Beshear is a possibility for U.S. Senate in 2026, all words from the governor and his team point to an easy answer to that question: No. His actions are continuing to speak loud on that front. All signs continue to point to Beshear running for president in 2028. He's gracing the pages of Washington media, launched a podcast, is on television frequently pushing back on Trump, is raising money for his own personal political action committee — all of these things signal an interest in running for higher office once his term as governor is finished. The latest splash: Hosting U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, on his podcast. In 2020, Klobuchar was a presidential candidate herself. She was once one of several front-runners, but dropped out and supported former president Biden just before Super Tuesday. Beshear's interview with her centered around her reason for getting into politics, which began when she advocated for mothers like herself who were temporarily separated from their newborns due to the child's disability. Klobuchar seemed to appreciate the opportunity, reposting segments of the interview on her own social media. Meanwhile, some other prominent Democrats are finding their own way to gin up presidential talk. Though he's said he doesn't plan to run in 2028, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore recently got high marks from Kentucky actor George Clooney in a CNN interview. Clooney added, though, that he also likes the prospect of a Beshear candidacy. 'I like him. He's a good guy… He's won in a red state,' Clooney said. Additionally, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker scored coverage from much of the political press for a speech in early primary state New Hampshire, though he played coy about the 2028 implications. Beshear has worked to build something of a base of support New Hampshire, using his In This Together PAC to spend $255,000 supporting a gubernatorial candidate there. That candidate, Joyce Craig, lost the race to former U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte by about 10 percentage points.

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