Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) primary challenger, businessman Matt Bevin, picked up another national Tea Party endorsement on Friday.
{mosads}Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund is backing Bevin and launching an independent expenditure in the race, which an aide to the group said would come in the form of grassroots organizing and direct outreach to voters rather than advertising.
Jenny Beth Martin, the group’s president, said it’s backing Bevin because he’s “a job-creator, family man, and community leader committed to fighting for personal freedom, economic freedom, and a debt free future.”
“Unlike the incumbent, Matt Bevin has never voted to raise the debt ceiling, has never cut a deal with Joe Biden to raise taxes by $600 billion, and has never worked to ‘crush’ his political opponents,” she added.
Martin also said that because McConnell’s been in Congress for decades he could have used his leadership to reign in government spending, but “instead, Senator McConnell worked with the Obama Administration to raise taxes, has voted to raise the debt ceiling ten times, and has added pork barrel projects to further his own career instead of the needs of the American people.”
Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund also endorsed Sen. Thad Cochran’s (R-Miss.) primary challenger, state Sen. Chris McDaniel, earlier this week.
Bevin has the backing of nearly every national conservative group, including the Senate Conservatives Fund and FreedomWorks. The Club for Growth hasn’t yet weighed in on the race and has signaled it ultimately might sit the primary out.
Conservatives feel McConnell is vulnerable to a primary challenge due to his support for the financial bailout and a number of votes to raise the debt limit, including one contentious vote just a few months ago.
But Bevin hasn’t yet managed to close the double-digit lead McConnell has posted in every public poll of the race, and has just two months left to do so.
If McConnell makes it through the primary, he’s expected to face Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes in the general election.