What promises to be a very big and very exciting primary season kicked off in Texas yesterday. Republicans chose Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott as their gubernatorial candidate, while liberal darling Wendy Davis took the Democratic nomination. Unsurprisingly, Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) made it through his primary unscathed. On radio this morning, FreedomWorks’ Matt Kibbe joined Glenn to discuss what conservatives can expect to see in the coming months.
“Well, the results out of Texas last night are actually very exciting if you are a TEA Party person,” Glenn said. “The national media will look at the top line results of Cornyn. They'll say, ‘Well, TEA Party is dead.’ There was no chance of Cornyn going anywhere. That was not something that was seriously contested. I wish it were, but it wasn't seriously contested. If you look at the turnout, if you look at all of the local, all of the statewide offices where the incumbents were thrown out or thrown into a runoff, it's significant.”
One of the major races FreedomWorks is focused on is the U.S. Senate race in Kentucky between Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Matt Bevin. Glenn, Pat, and Stu have spoken to Bevin many times and are very impressed with what they’ve heard. Matt explained that Sen. McConnell is in serious trouble.
“The [Karl] Rove team is very invested in protecting Mitch McConnell. And you think about the entire D.C. establishment, whether it be the political consultants who make so much money or the lobbyists that trade on the relationships with leadership, they're all for Mitch McConnell. It's not helping him that much in the state of Kentucky,” Matt said. “Mitch McConnell is actually statistically losing to a virtual no-name Democrat in a state where he's already spent $10 million. This is a state where Mitt Romney won Kentucky by 21 points.”
Despite all the money that has been spent by the establishment to protect Sen. McConnell, Matt believes the strategy is actually backfiring. Even though there is no doubt Bevin will be outspent in the race, Bevin has a very good chance of coming out on top.
“I think it's actually backfiring. There's partisan polls showing Mitch McConnell is winning and there's other polls by the Democrats that tell their story. But the trend is that Matt Bevin is steadily gaining on Mitch McConnell,” Matt explained. “And he's starting from zero. If you look at the trends, say, Rand Paul in Kentucky or Ted Cruz in Texas, it's quite similar. That by no means says that we're done, but it means that we're in the game. And I think a lot of the grassroots organizations and groups that support constitutional candidates are going to have to step up.”
With the fifth anniversary of the 9/12 Project just around the corner, Glenn asked Matt to reflect on the impact of the movement. Matt said the thought of have senators like Mike Lee (R-UT), Ted Cruz (R-TX), or Rand Paul (R-KY) in office would have seemed highly improbably just five years ago, and yet here we are.
“Michael Barone wrote a really smart piece a couple days ago talking about how we've fundamentally changed the conversation in Washington, how we're reshaping the Republican Party, and compared us to the conservative version of the left wing peace movement in the 1960s,” Matt said. “So we're changing everything. I do think that activists need to understand… this is a lifetime commitment… You don't get to fix Washington overnight as much as we desperately need to. We got to play the long game because if we go away, they go back to business as usual.”
Read the Michael Barone article HERE.
FreedomWorks is in the middle of a “money bomb” and could really use your support. They are trying to raise $200,000. Glenn encouraged the audience to visit FreedomWorksForMe.com and consider giving what they can to help get more conservatives elected into Congress.
Check out the interview below: