Hundreds gathered Monday morning to hear Charlie Kirk, Trump ally and founder of the youth-focused Turning Point USA, support the candidacy of Lexington businessman Nate Morris the week after he announced he would run for Kentucky’s open Senate seat next year.
“You in the grassroots of this state can say, ‘Enough. I'm tired of this false choice. We want to crush the uni-party,” Kirk said. “We want to end the McConnell mafia, and we're going to send a message to the rest of the country. With that, I want to introduce my friend Nate Morris, the next senator from the great state of Kentucky.”
Kirk, who is known for mobilizing young conservatives, often condemns what he calls the “LGBTQ agenda,” says the U.S. was founded as a “Christian nation,” and called the Civil Rights Act of 1964 “a huge mistake.” He said it’s time for Kentucky to turn “the page on the McConnell mafia” as he spoke in support of Morris.
With three high-profile Republicans now officially in the race to replace Kentucky’s longtime GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell, the fight for President Donald Trump’s endorsement is on. The president, who won the state by more than 30 percentage points, is expected to hold enormous weight in the GOP primary — and McConnell has become the favored punching bag as the Senate primary begins to heat up with almost a year left before Kentuckians head to the poll.
In front of the Shepherdsville crowd, Morris focused heavily on immigration, saying he wants to stop all immigration to the U.S. until mass deportations are complete. He also said he wants to seal the U.S.-Mexico border, end all support for Ukraine in their struggle against Russian invasion and “fight the elites” in Washington.
“Until we deport the 20 million illegals that Joe Biden has flooded our country with, we're not taking any new immigration,” Morris said. “That means no carve outs, no DACA, no special exceptions, hard stop on immigration, until we get the illegals out of our country period, that has to be number one.”
Estimates of the total number of unauthorized immigrants living in the United States vary. The Migration Policy Institute estimated 13.7 million people in 2023 and the Center for Migration Studies estimated 11.7 million people the same year.
Morris promised to support Trump’s agenda with complete loyalty, unlike McConnell, who has drawn Trump’s anger on numerous occasions.
“Mitch has the nerve to go to Washington and vote against you, and vote against your interest, your vote and what you want to see with President Trump,” Morris said. “And I started looking at the people that were going to get in this race, and I was appalled, because I thought to myself, these guys, they're nothing but puppets for Mitch McConnell.”
McConnell fiercely criticized Trump after the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. More recently, the 83-year-old senator refused to confirm two of Trump’s top secretary picks — Defense chief Pete Hegseth, whom he said is unqualified, and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., whom he accused of “trafficking in dangerous conspiracy theories” on vaccines and public health.
Morris faces two other high-profile Republicans in his bid for McConnell’s seat, including former state Attorney General Daniel Cameron and U.S. Congressman Andy Barr, whose district includes Lexington. All three contenders have their ties to McConnell to some extent, although all are distancing themselves. Cameron received a McConnell-sponsored scholarship to the University of Louisville and served as his legal counsel for a couple years. Barr once referred to McConnell as a “mentor” (in a clip Morris now uses in his campaign ads) and interned with the long-time senator.
“What people don't know is that Mitch McConnell has given both these guys everything they have on a silver platter,” Morris said Monday.
Morris himself confirmed he interned with McConnell in 2000. He also donated the federal maximum to McConnell in 2014 according to OpenSecrets.
Morris said he learned that McConnell will be receiving a lifetime achievement award at the Republican Party of Kentucky’s statewide Lincoln Dinner in August and was asked not to speak poorly of Republicans not running for election next year. A spokesperson for the RPK said no official decisions have been made yet on awards. Morris called on the party to rescind the award and for his opponents in the race to do the same.
“I want you to remember Mitch McConnell would always say, ‘If they throw a pebble at me, I'm going to throw a boulder back,” Morris said. “Mitch McConnell is the nastiest politician in the history of America, and he will do anything to win and to keep his power. And so I want you to think about that, because we're going to punch through every one of these attacks, and we're going to tell the truth.”
McConnell chose to give up his position as GOP Senate party leader last year and announced earlier this year that he would not run for reelection.
Several GOP members of the state General Assembly also attended the Monday rally. Rep. Josh Calloway from Irvington said he expects the race to be about “who can be the most Trump-ish candidate.” He said Kentucky has always punched above its weight, whether it’s through widely reported dissent from Sen. Rand Paul and Rep. Thomas Massie or the influence McConnell had to shape the judiciary.
“I think people are interested in seeing us keep that notoriety as being a smaller population state, a rural state, but being able to have somebody in there that's going to go fight for Kentucky and, from my standpoint, fight for conservative principles,” Calloway said.
The field for the U.S. Senate race is far from set, with the filing deadline still months away and the primaries in roughly 11 months, on May 19, 2026. But Kentuckians are already starting to see campaign ads and fierce rhetoric among contenders. Only one Democrat has so far announced for the race: state Rep. Pamela Stevenson, an attorney and retired U.S. Air Force Colonel who previously lost a bid for Kentucky Attorney General.
State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
