Rep. Andy Barr plans to announce next week that he is running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by former GOP leader Mitch McConnell, according to two people familiar with his plans and granted anonymity to discuss them.
One of those people, a Republican in Kentucky, provided an invitation to a “special campaign announcement” on Tuesday evening in Richmond.
Barr, a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee, had been considering a run to succeed McConnell since even before McConnell officially announced in February that he would not seek reelection next year.
The Lexington Herald-Leader first reported Barr’s plans.
First elected in 2012 to a Lexington-based seat, Barr will enter a contested primary to succeed the longest-serving Senate party leader in U.S. history. Former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who announced his campaign in February, had been viewed by many as the heir apparent to McConnell, before a failed bid for governor dented his reputation.
Barr, too, is already facing some challenges in the state. The anti-tax group Club for Growthreleased a TV ad in February attacking Barr for his vote to raise the debt ceiling and casting him as working on behalf of “woke Wall Street” banks.
Barr won a challenging campaign against former Marine Corps pilot Amy McGrath in 2018, solidifying his control over his central Kentucky seat. A Senate run will mark his first statewide campaign, testing whether his appeal stretches to some of the more conservative areas in the eastern and western parts of the state.
Barrraised $1.8 million in the first three months of the year, according to financial disclosures filed this week, and ended the quarter with $5.3 million in the bank. Cameron raised $508,000.
Barr’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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