On Saturday, members of the Kentucky Republican Party met in Lexington for a “unity rally” to show support for their slate of candidates for statewide public office. None of the former Republican candidates for governor showed up.
The rally was requested in April by Sen. Mitch McConnell, Sen. Rand Paul and most of Kentucky’s Republican congressional delegation—who had asked Republican candidates for governor to unite around the ultimate nominee.
Matt Bevin became the nominee after beating out Agriculture Commissioner James Comer by just 83 votes in the primary election.
However, former candidates Comer, Hal Heiner and Will T. Scott did not attend the event and McConnell backed out in order to prepare for a last-minute debate on the expiration of the Patriot Act in Washington.
Sen. Paul did show up and provided his endorsement, saying, “And I’ve told Matt that I will do everything humanly possible in between a few other things to try to help him win and I mean that.”
Using humor to try and tamp down rumors of bad blood with McConnell, Bevin presented a tongue-in-cheek video in which he got a “Team Mitch” tattoo. The six-term senator handily beat Bevin in a U.S. Senate Primary last year.
