Sen. Mitch McConnell’s decision not to run for re-election in Kentucky next year opens up his Senate seat for the first time since 1984 — and it is already drawing interest from heavy hitters looking to fill the seat.
Former state Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who served as a McConnell aide before launching his own career in elected office, including a run for governor in 2023, announced his Senate candidacy less than an hour after the news about McConnell’s retirement broke.
And Republican Rep. Andy Barr reiterated his interest in the seat, writing that the state “deserves a Senator who will fight for President Trump and the America First Agenda” and teasing a decision “soon.”
Barr, though, has already gotten some pushback from the conservative Club for Growth Action. The group launched a TV ad in the state last week targeting Barr’s support for federal spending and his votes to raise the country’s debt limit. Club for Growth Action President David McIntosh said in a statement that the group “will oppose his candidacy.” While the group hasn’t endorsed a specific candidate, it did support Cameron in his unsuccessful gubernatorial bid.
Others could jump in, too. Businessman Nate Morris said in a video posted to the social media platform X earlier this month that he’s “seriously” looking at running for either governor or senator, framing himself as a political outsider who wasn’t going to let “McConnell dictate whether I run or not.”
Hours after McConnell’s announcement, Morris spoke on a panel at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside of Washington, where he criticized “two candidates that are looking at this race that are puppets of Mitch McConnell, and we can’t have that.”
And other candidates who ran for statewide office recently, including former United Nations Ambassador Kelly Craft or former Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles (both of whom ran for governor in 2023, when Cameron won the GOP nomination but lost to Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear in the general election), could decide to mount another statewide bid.
One Republican who isn’t interested: Rep. James Comer. Comer spokesman Austin Hacker said that “Congressman Comer will not be running for Senate in 2026 but is strongly considering a run for governor in 2027.”
McConnell’s departure opens up a plum political office in a state that’s been good to Republicans at the federal level — no Democrat has won a Senate race there in the 21st century. But there’s been less room for Republicans to move up the ladder in the state than one might think: Kentucky has only had four senators since McConnell first won his seat in 1984.
Plus, Republicans have had tougher sledding running for governor — both Beshear and his father, Steve, won two gubernatorial elections, while both Republican governors who served over the last 25 years lost their re-elections.
Beshear’s campaign manager, Eric Hyers, told NBC News that the governor will not run for Senate.
One Democratic strategist with experience in the state pointed to Beshear adviser Rocky Adkins as a potential strong candidate. Adkins is a former state legislator and Democratic leader in the state House.
Though Beshear’s recent success could encourage some Democrats to run for the seat, it would still be considered an uphill battle, even if the political environment becomes more favorable for the party. McConnell won his 2020 re-election by almost 20 points over Democrat Amy McGrath, and GOP Sen. Rand Paul won another term by a larger margin in 2022 against Democrat Charles Booker — even though Beshear won his state re-election race the next year.
Syedah Asghar, Bridget Bowman, Scott Wong and Kyle Stewart contributed.
