Updated: October 18, 2013, 11:45 am
The Senate Conservatives Fund endorsed Republican Matt Bevin in the Republican primary for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) Senate seat.
“Matt Bevin is a true conservative who will fight to stop the massive spending, bailouts, and debt that are destroying our country,” Senate Conservatives Fund Executive Director Matt Hoskins said in a statement on Friday. “He is not afraid to stand up to the establishment and he will do what it takes to stop Obamacare. We know that winning this primary won’t be easy. Mitch McConnell has the support of the entire Washington establishment and he will do anything to hold on to power. But if people in Kentucky and all across the country rise up and demand something better, we’re confident Matt Bevin can win this race.”
The Senate Conservatives Fund has long been critical of McConnell arguing that the top Senate Republican does not sufficiently oppose Obamacare.
The Bevin endorsement is one of the earliest endorsements the conservative organization made this cycle. A day earlier the group endorsed Mississippi State Sen. Chris McDaniel (R) shortly after he announced his primary challenge to Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS).
The McConnell campaign slammed the endorsement.
“Matt Bevin now has the dubious honor of standing with a self-serving DC fundraising group that made its name by recruiting and promoting unelectable candidates that ensured Barack Obama a majority in the Senate,” McConnell spokesman Allison Moore said in a statement. “They clearly care less about Kentuckians than they do about their reputation for supporting laughably bad candidates. Now they can add a New England bailout recipient who claims he went to MIT to their roster of notable failures.”
The MIT mention refers to Bevin’s education record. Earlier in the year The Hill reported that Bevin exaggerated his ties to the school. The McConnell campaign has aired campaign ads attacking Bevin on this.
