FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A ten-month primary campaign that cost $12 million is coming to a close today in Kentucky, where Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is poised to beat a tea party-styled challenger, Matt Bevin.
At one point, Bevin had been considered a threat to McConnell, but he faded after attending a rally to legalize cockfighting.
Today, Bevin is pushing back at suggestions that the tea party is losing its four-year drive to disrupt the Washington establishment. He calls that idea “bunk,” and says that the “conviction to do the right thing” is “alive and well.”
High-profile primaries from Oregon to Georgia today will help determine which party controls the Senate.
President Barack Obama and his health care overhaul will pose a challenge this fall for many Democrats — including Georgia’s Michelle Nunn, who is seeking a Senate seat in a state that Republicans control. In recent days, she has refused to say whether she would have voted for the health care law.
Nunn and Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes — who is also expected to win her party’s nomination today — are seen as the Democrats’ best shots at picking up seats held by Republicans, who need to gain six seats to control the Senate for the final two years of Obama’s second term.
%@AP Links
197-a-14-(Jennifer Kelly, voter in Smyrna, Georgia, in AP interview)-“really really bad”-Jennifer Kelly of Smyrna, Georgia, predicts Republican candidates in her state will come to regret all the mud-slinging they’ve done in this primary. (20 May 2014)
<
189-a-03-(Beth Moffitt, voter in Louisville, Kentucky, in AP interview)-“a bad thing”-Beth Moffitt of Louisville, Kentucky, says she voted for female candidates because she feels they’re poorly represented, especially in higher office. (20 May 2014)
<
186-c-25-(Jerry Bodlander, AP correspondent)-“cast their ballots”-AP correspondent Jerry Bodlander reports it appears a lot of Kentucky voters aren’t showing up for today’s primaries. (20 May 2014)
<
APPHOTO GAATJ204: Voters go to the polls at Crossroads Presbyterian Church in Stone Mountain, Ga., to vote in Democratic and Republican primaries Tuesday, May 20, 2014. Five major GOP candidates will square off to represent their party this fall in the election to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss. Meanwhile, Michelle Nunn, daughter of former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn is a heavy favorite to win the Democratic nomination. (AP Photo/Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Kent D. Johnson) MARIETTA DAILY OUT; GWINNETT DAILY POST OUT; LOCAL TV OUT; WXIA-TV OUT; WGCL-TV OUT (20 May 2014)
<
APPHOTO KYTE109: Kentucky Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, left, signs the voter registration book before casting his ballot in the mid-term primary elections Tuesday, May 20, 2014, at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Ky. Ten months and $12 million later, Kentucky Republicans will put an end the fight Tuesday between McConnell and Matt Bevin in a Republican Senate primary that failed to live up to its pre-election buzz. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley) (20 May 2014)
< Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
