Posted on 03/28/2013 3:15:48 PM PDT by markomalley
The Daily Caller has learned that Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul is endorsing Sen. Mitch McConnell for re-election in 2014, ending speculation that Paul would back a tea party challenge to the Senate minority leader.
“Rand Paul has endorsed McConnell,” Jesse Benton, McConnell’s 2014 campaign manager, told The Daily Caller.
Benton, who has worked for both Rand Paul and his father, former Texas Rep. Ron Paul, is credited by insiders with brokering Paul’s support for McConnell.
The move quashes a determined effort by Kentucky Republican Liberty Caucus chairman David Adams, who launched Paul’s Senate bid and served as Paul’s campaign manager through the 2010 primaries, and other tea party leaders to mount a primary challenge against McConnell.
Paul recently appeared in a Mitch McConnell advertisement with the slogan “Stand Up to Obama: Join Mitch & Rand,” prompting Adams to complain on Facebook, “Is anyone buying this, really?”
“There’s no support at all at this point for a tea party challenge,” Benton said, in a statement confirmed by other Kentucky Republican insiders.
Adams had a conversation with Paul at an event Wednesday afternoon, but they were not meeting in order for Adams to try to convince Paul to back off his pro-McConnell stance, as had been suspected by one insider.
“I was there with a couple hundred Lexington Republicans. I chatted briefly with Rand for a few minutes, but it wasn’t an exclusive one-on-one kind of meeting,” Adams told TheDC, adding that he’s still hopeful that the tea party wing of the party can field a challenger to McConnell.
“There are behind-closed-doors meetings happening all over the state. Right now, we’re trying to gauge interest and viability for a generic candidate. We’re working to get down to one alternative to McConnell. The process will be completed by June 1,” Adams said.
Adams admitted that Paul’s endorsement of McConnell will not hurt Paul with his tea party base, but said it will rather reflect poorly on McConnell for trying to ingratiate himself with the tea party element through Paul.
“Among people here in Kentucky, it’s not a major concern. Rand has built up a lot of goodwill with voters in Kentucky who are not McConnell fans at all, so they see this as a McConnell effort to try to ingratiate himself with Rand supporters. It will hurt McConnell, if anything,” Adams said.
But Benton, McConnell’s campaign manager, isn’t so sure.
“David Adams? The guy we fired? He’s just so incompetent,” Benton said. “He’s trying to stir some rumor mill” about a serious tea party challenger, Benton insisted.
“Rand can’t stand David [Adams],” Benton said.
Infighting between tea party figures has also weakened the chances for businessman and potential tea party challenger Matt Bevin to take on McConnell, according to some insiders.
“He’s had his name thrown around out here, but I’m not convinced” of Bevin’s viability, Adams said. “I think there are other potentially superior candidates.”
Sounds like Rand has been in Washington too long. How in the world could anyone endorse a stiff board with a mind full of mush?
Please. He said this two weeks ago and no one made a big deal about it then.
It does not take long to get “inside the beltway” I see...
Freegards LEX
“David Adams? The guy we fired? He’s just so incompetent,”
“David Adams, who launched Paul’s Senate bid and served as Paul’s campaign manager through the 2010 primaries, and other tea party leaders to mount a primary challenge against McConnell.”
If he is so incompetent how did he get Rand Paul elected.
Looks to me like somebody just got stabbed in the back.
Rand goes with the guy with the power.
“Paul recently appeared in a Mitch McConnell advertisement with the slogan “Stand Up to Obama”
Rand and McConnell made an ad Stand up to Obama????????
When will McConnel start doing that?
I don’t think this will save McConnell from a primary challenge. People are just p*ssed. I hear Mitch on radio ads all the time now and, listening to them, he’s a blessed saint to Conservatives. All he’s doing is patting himself on the back. The primary challenge IS coming, Mitch, regardless of Senator Rand Paul’s position.
In the short time he's been in DC, Rand Paul seems to be good at saying the right thing, but turning around and towing the party line. I'm beginning to get suspicious.
Quid pro quo for MM signing off on RP’s recent bill/amendment to axe six (?) fedgov fiefdoms, perhaps ?
I’m afraid it was obvious that he couldn’t be trusted from the start. And now we’re seeing that confirmed, more and more.
No real principles.
These people ALL suck! There’s no one we can depend on.
They’re Senators.
...and is Ron Paul's grandson-in-law (married Paul's grandaughter Valori Pyeatt. A little in the family wink, wink, nod nod.
Agreed. Beats the heck out of me. RP is just another establishment Republican.
I say they did good by blocking Ashley CRudd from running.
Some here say she never would have won. I think differently.
Actually, it was NOT good. Judd would’ve been a fiasco for KY Dems. Now they’ll have a serious Dem challenger in Sec of State Alison Grimes.
-PJ
I remember when they said Al Franken was going to be a disaster too. uh huh.
The dems only hope in Kentucky was to split the gop. As soon as rand Paul endorsed McConnell it was all over for them.
Minnesota is not Kentucky. Judd was a deeply flawed and divisive potential candidate, and she did not have the KY Dem Machine behind her.
Secondly, that MN Senate race had 3 candidates running (which would’ve had an altered dynamic in a one-on-one race, which Coleman would’ve prevailed in). The Independence Party candidate running provided “moderate” Democrats and Independents an opportunity to vote for someone not viewed as a nutter, but not having to vote Republican.
Thirdly, it became exceedingly apparent that the race was “won” on the face of voter fraud, and shattered the myth of MN as being a “clean elections” state.
The machine would have been behind her as soon as she announced. there would have been a 3 party race if Paul had backed a tea party candidate. It’s no coincidence she dropped out the same day Paul endorsed McConnell. third party is no longer going to happen and McConnell is now going to win.
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