A Kentucky political novice hoping to defeat Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell has picked up his first key endorsement from a conservative group that is promising much-needed financial support to take on the popular incumbent and his $10 million war chest.
Louisville businessman Matt Bevin, a New Hampshire native who moved to the state in 1999, was endorsed Sunday by a national group headed by former Rep. Jim Ryun, a Kansas Republican.
The Madison Project endorsement reported by the Hill touted Bevin's accomplishments in the private sector running investment companies, and blasted McConnell's record as the Senate minority leader and one of the most powerful men in Washington,
The Hill reports.
The group blamed McConnell for not speaking out enough against the immigration reform bill.
"Despite the fact that this was the most onerous bill to come to the floor since Obamacare and despite his status as GOP leader, Sen. McConnell failed to deliver a single floor speech against the bill," said a fundraising letter from the group to its supporters.
McConnell did speak out against the bill during a June 11 speech before the vote was held and criticized the measure for failing to
beef up border security.
The group also praised Bevin as someone poised to storm "the decaying castle of the GOP establishment for millions of conservatives."
Longtime Kentucky political observer Al Cross wrote in the
Louisville Courier-Journal Sunday that Bevin has little chance of beating McConnell, and that even Bevin doesn't have confidence in his own chances.
Other key conservative groups have yet to decide who they will back in the Kentucky race. Both the Senate Conservatives Fund and the Club for Growth say they have yet to make a decision.