In a new ad running in Kentucky, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee is attacking Mitch McConnell with a spot featuring a state hunter arguing for gun-control measures.
The hunter, Gary Nutt, says he doesn’t need an assault rifle to hunt deer and notes that McConnell has received donations from the gun industry.
The McConnell campaign is unruffled by the ads. “Senator McConnell is committed to protecting the constitutional rights of every single Kentuckian,” says campaign manager Jesse Benton. “Far-left George Soros–funded groups are dead-set on eroding our rights and have put a big target on his back, but they will not weaken Leader McConnell’s commitment to principle.”
Scott Jennings, a Kentucky GOP strategist and former special assistant to George W. Bush, says that recent polling from his firm, Run Switch PR, found that Kentuckians were more concerned about ensuring that mentally ill people weren’t able to obtain guns rather than implementing harsher gun-control laws.
“In Kentucky generally, there’s a very strong culture of protecting Second Amendment rights,” Jennings remarks, adding that the top issues for voters in the state are the economy, spending, and the national debt.