Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-K.Y., is taking an absolute beating at home – and allies are reportedly “going for the jugular” to oust McConnell.
The longtime Senate Republican leader is retiring at the end of his term after more than 40 years, and the Republican race to replace him has turned into an all-out attack on McConnell’s legacy.
The Republican primary to fill his seat is set for May 19, 2026, with the general election scheduled for November 3. Given Kentucky’s deep-red history, the GOP nominee is widely expected to win in November.
The three leading candidates in the race are Rep. Andy Barr, former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, and Lexington businessman Nate Morris. All three have slammed McConnell’s legacy — despite two of them having direct ties to the retiring senator.
Cameron once served as McConnell’s legal counsel and was widely seen as his protege. He now wants no part of that label.
“I’m my own man,” Cameron said in a recent interview. He also slammed McConnell’s votes against several of President Trump’s Cabinet nominees.
“What we saw from Mitch McConnell in voting against Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard and RFK was just flat-out wrong,” Cameron said in a campaign video. “You should expect a senator from Kentucky to vote for those nominees to advance the America First agenda.”
Barr, who once called McConnell a “mentor,” has also kept his distance, and instead has pointed to his role as Kentucky chairman of Trump’s 2024 campaign.
The most aggressive attacks on McConnell have come from Morris, who has the backing of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Donald Trump Jr., and the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was killed in September. Kirk’s organization, Turning Point USA, continues to back Morris.
“He has had a stranglehold on Kentucky for 40 years, and it is not the easiest thing to challenge the McConnell mafia right here in the Bluegrass State. But we’ve done it and we’ve gone straight for the jugular of Mitch and his cronies,” Morris said.
“This is a fight for the future of the Republican Party … Donald Trump’s Republican Party,” he said. “And certainly, if you’re with Mitch McConnell, you’re not part of that future.”
The anti-McConnell sentiment extends beyond the campaign trail.
A recent Emerson College poll showed McConnell with just a 15% job approval rating among Kentucky voters, with 68% disapproving. Barr leads the primary field at 24%, followed by Cameron at 21% and Morris at 14%, with 38% of Republican primary voters still undecided.
President Trump has not endorsed a candidate in the race. His son and prominent allies have aligned with Morris, while Trump himself acknowledged Barr at a White House event, saying, “Good luck with everything. I hear good things.”
Whoever wins the May primary will almost certainly win the Senate seat in the November general election. Kentucky has not sent a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1992.