McConnell and Grimes fly around the state

By Cheyene Miller

University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell made his first stop in Louisville for his “Countdown to Victory” fly-around tour with fellow Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, urging voters to make him the “offensive coordinator in the U.S. Senate,” his term for majority leader.

“Victory is in the air and we’re going to bring it home tomorrow night,” McConnell told a crowd of supporters at Bowman Field in Louisville Monday morning, one of several stops designed to get news coverage and turn out the vote. Democratic nominee Alison Lundergan Grimes is doing likewise.

McConnell told his supporters that they had the chance to make a Kentuckian majority Leader, and that as “offensive coordinator” he and his team would “put points on the board and take America in a different direction.”

Paul, a top Republican hopeful for president in 2016, praised McConnell’s history of protecting the First Amendment, and said a McConnell victory would help lead to a “repudiation of President Obama’s policies.”

McConnell said Paul, who is often described as a libertarian, was “literally beginning to redefine what the Republican Party should be.”

McConnell was introduced at the event by former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, who called herself the “proud wife of the next majority leader of the United States Senate” and said he and Paul give Kentucky the most powerful senators of any state.

Attendees at the event, including Kentucky Motorcycle Association member David Newman, were moved by the words of McConnell and Paul.

“We’re a freedom-loving group, and Senator McConnell has been a good friend of our issues for years,” which are “pretty much ‘leave us alone’,” said Newman.  “We want to retain him in the Senate position, and also have him step up as the Senate majority leader.”