Will Trump Be Able To Save McConnell From Kentucky Voters In 2 Years?

Pelosi is one of the least liked politicians in America-- two caveats though: 1- her own constituents love her and showed it at the polls 2 weeks ago when 172,399 voters turned out-- more than any other district in California-- and gave her an overwhelming win against 6 challengers and 2- she's far more popular than Mitch McConnell, the most disliked elected official in America.

McConnell's seat isn't up this November. It's up in 2020-- when Señor Trumpanzee is on the top of the ticket. If Pete Session in a gerrymandered Dallas district can loose his seat, as looks likely-- McConnell can too. This morning Alex Isenstadt too a look at what to expect in just under 2 and a half years.

In 2014 McConnell beat Alison Lundergan Grimes, a moderate who didn't offer much of a progressive message to contrast herself to McConnell, 806,787 (56.2%) to 584,698 (40.7%) Two years later Kentucky voters looked at an even worse status quo candidate, Hillary Clinton and Trump eviscerated her, 1,202,971 (62.5%) to 628,854 (32.7%), winning all 120 counties minus two. It was Trump's 5th strongest state. Trump is still far more popular in Kentucky than McConnell and McConnell has stuck as closely to Trump as he could and is certainly one of Trump's top congressional enablers. On Monday, McConnell and his top advisors met to plot out a strategy.

At a time when anti-establishment sentiment is roiling the party, the 76-year-old McConnell, who this week became the longest-serving Senate Republican leader in history, has a target on his back and is taking no chances.

Polling has shown the leader’s approval ratings lagging in his home state, and there is the ongoing threat of a primary challenge.

“You have to start laying the groundwork really early,” said Billy Piper, a former McConnell chief of staff who remains an outside adviser. “He lives by the motto you can start too late, but you can never start too early. And that probably gets more true with each passing cycle.”

...McConnell, who since his first Senate election in 1984 has established a reputation as a sharp-elbowed campaigner, is regarded as a political titan in Kentucky. Yet his path to another term won’t necessarily be smooth.

The leader’s poll numbers are weak. A Western Kentucky University survey conducted in April found McConnell’s approval rating at just 30 percent in the state, the same figure recorded in a December Mason-Dixon poll of Kentucky voters.

...[A] few names are circulating, including sports radio show host Matt Jones, retired Marine corps fighter pilot and 2018 congressional hopeful Amy McGrath, and state Attorney General Andy Beshear, son of ex-Gov. Steve Beshear.

Reached by phone Wednesday evening, Jones, a liberal who has used his popular show to target McConnell, said he expects to decide on a run by the middle of next year. Jones said he‘s confident he could make a persuasive case to voters that McConnell’s time is up, but added that he fully understood how hard it would be to take him out.

...“Anyone who will run against him will be put through a blender,” said Scott Jennings, a longtime McConnell confidant, “the likes of which they’ve never experienced.”

Tying himself to Trump like a barnacle is probably McConnell's best strategy-- at least for now. In fact, yesterday, McConnell called for an end to the Mueller investigation, Trump's top priority. He said that "it’s time for special counsel Robert Mueller to conclude the federal probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion with Moscow by President Trump... 'What I think about the Mueller investigation is, they ought to wrap it up. It’s gone on seemingly forever and I don’t know how much more they think they can find out..'" Did you ever wonder why McConnell derailed the effort to pass legislation to protect Mueller from Trump?