From an April 7, 2016 CNN story:
“Rep. Marlin Stutzman is a member of the anti-leadership House Freedom Caucus, a conservative in the mold of Ted Cruz and a three-term Indiana congressman who voted against John Boehner as speaker. Now, he wants a promotion to the Senate – and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his allies want to stop that. Privately, McConnell has made clear to his confidantes that he wants to bolster the candidacy of Stutzman’s chief GOP rival, Rep. Todd Young, and push him over-the-top in the May 3 primary, according to sources familiar with the conversations.”
This is how the Old Crow, with the help of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce et al., have kept conservatives out of the Senate.
Yup. We’ve seen that over and over, especially in VERY Republican states where there was danger of electing a conservative because whatever Republican is nominated will likely get elected. McConnell helped sandbag the conservative in 2012 that got nominated (taking out incumbent liberal Republican Lugar) on the phony rape question. Then Indiana got a Democrat for 6 years and then got Young. So same same as far as McConnell is concerned.