Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Bill Clinton has been "really good for me," as the former president visited Kentucky to support McConnell's Democratic rival, Alison Lundergan Grimes.
"The last time he ran in 1996, he eked out a narrow victory in Kentucky, while I beat the current governor by 160,000 votes, about 10 points," the Republican leader said in a statement, according to
The Daily Caller.
"In 2008, both Bill and Hillary Clinton came to town, including the day before the election, and I won by 100,000 votes. So I welcome President Clinton back to Kentucky. Every time he’s come, it’s been really good for me."
In 2008, Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton campaigned for Democrat Bruce Lunsford, who lost to McConnell by 6 percentage points. In 2010, Clinton campaigned with Attorney General Jack Conway the night before the election, but Sen. Rand Paul won by 12 percentage points.
In one of the most closely watched Senate races this year, Kentucky Secretary of State Grimes is the likely Democratic candidate to challenge the longtime GOP incumbent, who must first face a tough primary challenge from businessman Matt Bevin, a tea party activist.
In Louisville on Tuesday, Clinton joined Grimes, the daughter of a longtime friend, for a lunchtime fundraiser costing from $500 to $5,200 to attend, according to the
Lexington Herald-Leader.
Clinton, who won the Bluegrass State's presidential vote in 1992 and 1996, told the crowd: "I love Kentucky. You’ve been good to me."
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The former president then lashed out at McConnell, saying that the senator and the rest of the GOP have been "pouting" because they are not in power, instead of helping to repair the country’s woes. He called it a "dumb way to run a country," according to
Politico.
A recent Bluegrass Poll shows Grimes leading McConnell by 46 percent to 42 percent, while the Senate Minority Leader is ahead of Bevin by a margin of 55 percent to 29 percent.
According to
CBS, 60 percent of Kentuckians disapprove of the job McConnell is doing, while just 32 percent approve.
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