Kentucky Senate hopeful Nate Morris pledges his loyalty to President Trump
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Republican businessman Nate Morris entered Kentucky's competitive campaign Thursday to succeed longtime Senate power broker Mitch McConnell, branding himself as a political outsider and loyal supporter of President Donald Trump's MAGA movement.
Morris joins U.S. Rep. Andy Barr and ex-state Attorney General Daniel Cameron as GOP heavyweights vying for their party's nomination next spring in the Republican-leaning Bluegrass State. He said his campaign would become a referendum on McConnell's Senate record, and he tried to link his two Republican rivals to the longtime senator, though Morris has his own past ties to McConnell.
'You have two McConnellites who owe everything to Mitch McConnell versus the outside business guy that's running as the MAGA candidate,' Morris said in a campaign release. 'I think that contrast is gonna be very, very striking to Kentuckians all over the state because they've had enough of Mitch.'
Morris joins the Senate race with far less name recognition than his main rivals but has his own advantage — he can tap into personal wealth he accumulated as a tech entrepreneur to unleash an advertising blitz to make himself more of a household name in the coming months.
He staked out a hard line on immigration in announcing his candidacy. He said he supports a moratorium on immigration into the United States until every immigrant currently in the country illegally is deported.
The GOP contenders are following the same playbook — lavishing praise on Trump in hopes of landing the president's prized endorsement — seen as potentially decisive in determining who wins the primary.
Morris hopes to connect with Kentuckians by touting his family's blue-collar roots, plus his staunch support for Trump in a state where Trump dominated the past three presidential elections.
Morris — a ninth-generation Kentuckian with family ties to Appalachia — was raised in a union household by a single mother and attended public schools, his campaign bio said. Many of his relatives worked at an auto plant, including his grandfather, who headed the local auto union, it said.
'I have been able to live the American dream because of how great this country is,' Morris said.
Morris founded Rubicon, one of the country's largest waste and recycling companies. Starting with a $10,000 line of credit, Morris served as CEO for more than 12 years, growing the company to nearly $700 million in annual revenue while creating hundreds of jobs, the bio said. The company later ran into financial difficulties, which could provide fodder for Morris' rivals.
Barr's campaign immediately went on the attack, questioning Morris' authenticity by pointing to a campaign donation it says Morris gave to Nikki Haley, a Trump campaign rival in 2024. And Barr's team claimed Morris championed diversity initiatives as a businessman, contrary to Trump's policies.
'Nate Morris is pretending to be MAGA now, but he can't run from all the liberal trash in his past,' Barr's campaign said Thursday in a statement. 'Kentucky conservatives won't fall for this fraud.'
The wide-open race was set in motion when McConnell — the longest-serving Senate party leader in U.S. history — announced in February, on his 83rd birthday, that he wouldn't seek reelection in 2026 and will retire when his current term ends.
His departure will end an era in Bluegrass State politics. Through the decades, McConnell ensured that his home state received plenty of federal funding. Back home, he was a key architect in his party's rise to power in a state once dominated by Democrats.
But McConnell has drawn criticism from fellow Republicans wanting to succeed him as they jockey for support from Trump and his supporters. Morris' attacks on McConnell were by far the most caustic, blasting the senator earlier this year for opposing a handful of Trump's nominations.
All three leading GOP contenders, however, have ties to the venerable Kentuckian. Cameron is a former McConnell aide and the senator helped launch Cameron's political career. Barr has referred to the senator as a mentor and Morris worked as an intern in McConnell's office.
The state's two Democrats holding statewide office — Gov. Andy Beshear and Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman — have both said they will not enter the Senate race. Beshear is seen as a potential presidential candidate in 2028, while Coleman is viewed by many as a looming candidate for governor in 2027.
A top legislative Democrat, state House Minority Floor Leader Pamela Stevenson, is seeking the Senate seat. Kentucky hasn't elected a Democrat to the Senate since Wendell Ford in 1992.
___
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
17 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Trump is trying to turn California into a police state. Here's what's coming next
The stage is set for one hot summer on America's streets. Last week's U.S. Court of Appeals hearing on whether President Trump exceeded his authority — first, by unilaterally calling up thousands of California's National Guard troops to restore order in roughly six city blocks of Los Angeles and then by deploying hundreds of active-duty Marines specializing in urban warfare — was jaw-dropping. A Trump administration attorney argued before the court that his boss has the unreviewable power to call up the guard, not only as he has already done in the Golden State, but simultaneously in all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia. And to deploy, alongside these guard members, unlimited numbers of active-duty armed forces, such as the Marines, whose primary mission Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has repeatedly pledged will focus on 'lethality, warfighting and readiness.' The court signing off on this shocking authoritarian overreach was paired with Trump's recent comments suggesting that Los Angeles is just the beginning ('We are going to have troops everywhere'), and Hegseth's belligerent refusal in last week's Senate oversight hearing to answer the simple question of whether or not he had given the order authorizing 'live ammunition' (one might, reasonably, assume the answer is 'yes'). Outrage over the court's sanctioning of Trump's military deployments was quickly overwhelmed by his bombing of Iran. But Immigration and Customs Enforcement has continued its provocations in Los Angeles — including the apparent racial profiling and arrest of a U.S. citizen on her way to work — with military backing. National Guard troops were also deployed last week more than 130 miles away from Los Angeles to assist in the raid of a suspected marijuana farm in Riverside County. The 'legal rationale' the administration has thus far successfully floated to justify these actions was an obscure 1798 law whose Fox News-friendly statutory nomenclature has quickly evolved into a MAGA-embraced, immigrant-bashing, chest-pounding rallying cry: The wording fits perfectly with the outright lies told during Trump's presidential campaign, about how Haitian immigrants were allegedly eating everyone's cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio, and how a Venezuelan street gang had somehow turned Aurora, Colo., (conveniently located near an ICE detention center) into a 'war zone.' The Trump administration will almost certainly ride the Alien Enemies Act train until it jumps the court-sanctioned tracks, then simply catch the next train and then the next until they/we/all of us arrive at their chosen destination: A police state. The term 'police state,' as we all know, gets tossed around a lot. But few have a clear idea of what it is. A country becomes a police state when the line between civil and military authority is rendered meaningless. We're not there yet. But here's one scenario of how we might arrive at that fate, using Los Angeles (as Trump is doing in real life) as a case study. The last time a U.S. president sent the National Guard somewhere to address civil unrest was, of course, Los Angeles in 1992 during the riots after police officers were acquitted of the Rodney King beating. The initial request for a federal response originated with the governor, rather than the president. Then, as it is now, local police, such as the Los Angeles Police Department, train and practice alongside National Guard soldiers under a federal mandate known as Defense Support of Civil Authority. These joint preparations occur during weekend training drills of National Guard and reserve units and help to identify possible weaknesses in the chain of command and in general operations. One illustrative example of how crucial a role this authority plays in emergency operations — and how quickly things can turn bad, quickly — comes from the Rodney King riots and their aftermath. As the disturbances were winding down, an L.A. police sergeant who had taken fire some days earlier returned to the scene where shots were fired. With him was a Marine Corps infantry platoon led by a young lieutenant. With the Marines stationed in front of the house, the police sergeant sent two of his men around back. Before starting across the street to investigate, the police sergeant told the Marine lieutenant to 'cover him.' The entire platoon opened up with automatic weapons fire. 'Cover me' means something very different to a Marine than it means to a police officer. To a Marine, trained only for combat, 'cover me' means opening fire when a member of your team begins to advance on a target. Most people have probably seen this in a movie, if not in a modern war video game. That, however, is not what it means to police; it's a request to raise weapons to be ready to fire should the need arise. Fortunately, no one died that day. But we may not be so lucky on today's streets, given the lack of coordination and cooperation endemic to Trump's style of leadership. Should such a tragic incident come to pass, we can expect more civil unrest — possibly even riots — and for Trump to weaponize that straight out of the fascist playbook, something he's already doing with his ICE provocations: Stir something up, wait for your loyal base to call on its dear leader to restore order. Send in more troops, provide that 'iron fist' for which your followers yearn, tighten your grip on power. Wrap yourself in the flag, flood the zone with propaganda, rinse/repeat. The aggressive actions in Los Angeles have not, as of yet, resulted in significant injury and harm to civilians or police. But other cities, other states might not be so lucky. As Trump almost certainly seeks to expand his operations in the coming weeks and months to New York or perhaps Chicago, Democratic governors likely to find themselves in the crosshairs would be well-advised to begin preparing now, while their National Guard is still under their command and control. Make no mistake, America: Our mettle and our intestinal fortitude are about to be tested. We hold out hope that the Supreme Court will issue an emergency ruling telling the president he has exceeded his powers. Especially if people start to die. This would put some daylight between what Trump is trying to pull and his actual official powers. If he then persists in issuing orders to the military, which the court has declared illegal, you can rest assured the military has ways, largely unfamiliar to civilians, to maintain 'good order and discipline' in its ranks. Arresting a superior officer (including a commander-in-chief) may be contemplated where his or her actions warrant such. Especially when that becomes necessary to fulfill their sacred oath to 'protect and defend the Constitution.' Semper fi. Brett Wagner, now retired, served as a professor of national security decision making for the U.S. Naval War College and adjunct fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. J. Holmes Armstead, now retired, served as a professor of strategy and international law at the U.S. Naval War College and as a judge advocate general, inspector general and civil affairs officer in the U.S. Army, Army Reserves and National Guard.
Bloomberg
18 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
The Cost of Living in NYC and Immigrating to the US
By Welcome to the Wall Street Week newsletter, bringing you stories of capitalism about things you need to know, but even more things you need to think about. I'm David Westin, and this week we told the stories of Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani winning the Democratic mayoral primary in New York City and of the business of countries selling the right to be a resident. If you're not yet a subscriber, sign up here for this newsletter. New York City held its Democratic mayoral primary this week, and chose relative newcomer, State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, over a crowded field that included former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who resigned in 2021 in the wake of multiple sexual harassment allegations that he denies. Mamdani stood out, not just for his disciplined, organized campaign, but for his embrace of "Democratic Socialism."
CNN
19 minutes ago
- CNN
Fact check: Trump makes big false claims about his big domestic policy bill
President Donald Trump is using false claims to promote his massive domestic policy bill. In a White House speech on Thursday, Trump falsely claimed Medicaid is 'left the same' by the bill. In fact, both the version of the legislation that was narrowly passed by the House in May and the latest version now being contemplated by the Senate contain major Medicaid policy changes and funding cuts that are expected to result in millions of people losing insurance coverage. Trump also falsely claimed that the bill includes 'no tax' on Social Security benefits. The legislation would not actually fulfill Trump's campaign promise to completely eliminate taxes on Social Security benefits, though it would temporarily give seniors a substantially bigger tax deduction. And Trump falsely claimed that 'there'll be a 68% tax increase' if Congress doesn't approve the bill; there is no credible estimate of anything close to a 68% hike. One caveat: since Congress has not yet sent a final bill to Trump's desk, it's possible that legislators will make major changes before the Senate votes. But Trump's claims are inaccurate with regard to the House-approved version and the version senators are considering. Asked for comment on the president's false claims, the White House provided an on-record response that touted the benefits of the bill but did not defend Trump's specific assertions. 'The One, Big, Beautiful Bill is chock-full of the policies that the American people elected President Trump – and Congressional Republicans – to implement,' White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a Friday email. Here is a fact check. Trump claimed in his Thursday address that people are 'not going to feel any' of the spending cuts included in the bill. He then said, 'Your Medicaid is left alone. It's left the same.' Facts First: Trump's claim about Medicaid is false. The version of the bill that was passed by the House last month would make multiple significant changes to Medicaid and would reduce federal funding for the program by hundreds of billions of dollars. The legislation's Medicaid provisions are expected to result in 7.8 million more people being uninsured in 2034, according to estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Medicaid provides health insurance coverage to more than 71 million low-income Americans, including children, people with disabilities, senior citizens, parents and other adults. The House bill would require certain able-bodied adults without dependent children to work, volunteer or participate in other activities for at least 80 hours a month to retain their coverage. It would also enact several provisions that would make it more difficult to sign up for or reenroll in Medicaid. And it would reduce federal support to certain states that provide state-funded coverage to undocumented immigrants. Regardless of the merits of these policies, they are major changes that would not leave Medicaid 'the same.' All told, the changes would reduce federal support for the program by roughly $800 billion over a decade, the Congressional Budget Office projects; the Senate version of the bill has yet to be finalized but contains many similar provisions. Asked for comment on Trump's claim that Medicaid would be 'left the same' by the bill, a White House official provided background material that did not try to corroborate the claim. Rather, the White House defended the bill's proposed changes to Medicaid – saying, for example, that the majority of people the Congressional Budget Office estimated would lose Medicaid under the bill 'are able-bodied adults between the ages of 19 and 64 who have no dependents and work less than 20 hours per week.' Trump campaigned in 2024 on a promise of no more taxes on Social Security benefits. On Thursday, he said the bill is 'so good' because it includes 'hundreds of things' that will benefit Americans – including 'no tax' on Social Security. He then said in a social media post on Friday that the legislation left Republicans 'on the precipice' of delivering achievements including 'NO TAX ON SOCIAL SECURITY FOR OUR SENIORS.' Facts First: Trump's claim about Social Security is false. The bill would temporarily beef up seniors' standard tax deduction, but it would not completely eliminate taxes on Social Security benefits. The House-approved version would give people age 65 and older a $4,000 increase to their standard deduction from 2025 through 2028, whether or not they are receiving Social Security payments yet. The Senate version would provide a $6,000 boost to seniors. In both versions, the benefit would start to phase out for individuals with incomes of more than $75,000 and couples with incomes of more than $150,000. This measure is a move in the direction of Trump's campaign promise to end taxes on Social Security benefits; lawmakers could not eliminate those taxes under the rules of budget reconciliation, which Republicans are using to advance the package by a simple majority vote and without Democratic support in the Senate. But whatever the reason, Trump's claim that the bill includes 'no tax' on Social Security, period, remains incorrect. Asked for comment on the Trump claim, the White House asserted in its background material that, under the bill, the vast majority of seniors receiving Social Security income would pay no tax on that income. Trump's own assertion was bigger. Trump warned Thursday of the consequences of allowing the temporary tax cuts from his 2017 tax law to expire rather than making them permanent by passing this new bill – and he invoked a figure he has frequently deployed when promoting the 2025 legislation. 'If the bill doesn't pass, there'll be a 68% tax increase,' he said. 'Think of that: 68%.' Trump again repeated the '68%' warning during Friday remarks at the White House. Facts First: Trump's claim is false. There is no credible basis for the claim that failing to pass the bill would result in anywhere near a 68% tax increase. One analysis from the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center think tank found that taxes would rise by an average of about 7.5% in 2026 if Trump's bill didn't pass. Asked for comment by CNN, the White House did not attempt to address the '68%' figure even on condition of anonymity; it also provided no comment to other fact-checkers earlier in the month. In their articles, PolitiFact and noted that it's possible Trump has been wrongly describing a different Tax Policy Center estimate. The think tank found that about 64% of households would pay more taxes in 2026 if the 2017 law's temporary cuts in individual income tax and the estate tax were allowed to expire. That's clearly not the same as saying Americans will face a 64% (or 68%) tax increase. And this wasn't a one-time slip of the tongue by the president.
