Louisville Courier Journal, June 26, 2025
A Kentucky businessman is throwing his name into the Republican field of candidates to replace Sen. Mitch McConnell, who is retiring at the end of his current term.
Nate Morris, chairman and chief executive officer of Morris Industries, announced June 26 on Donald Trump Jr.’s podcast show, “Triggered with Don Jr.,” he will make a bid for the U.S. Senate.
“I think it’s time to take out the trash in Washington, D.C., and bring someone new, somebody from the outside, somebody that’s not a career politician and most importantly, someone that’s only beholden to the people, not to McConnell cronies and the people that have been occupying this seat through McConnell over the last 40 years,” Morris said.
Morris, who has never served in public office but has been involved in Kentucky politics, runs a privately held conglomerate in Lexington. According to its website, the company “reimagines the industrial economy while leveraging the power of business to solve some of America’s biggest challenges, including the environment and national security.”
Morris has also worked with Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul, with POLITICO calling Morris “a door-opener for Paul with big-money GOP donors.”
He touted his background as a ninth-generation Kentuckian, saying he and his family have been “fighting and scrapping for everything we have.”
“Like most Kentuckians, 19 of my family members worked at an auto plant, and I’ve been able to live the American dream because of how great this country is,” Morris said.
Morris has taken jabs at McConnell in the past, including in a recent social media post where he criticized the senator for voting against the confirmation of Pete Hegseth as U.S. secretary of defense.
He was critical of McConnell during his campaign announcement, saying that McConnell’s legacy will be known in Kentucky and around the country as someone who was “sabotaging Trump’s agenda.”
“I look at Mitch McConnell as the final boss for (Trump) to defeat, and I think he’s going to do it right here in Kentucky and elect an America First candidate to carry on his legacy in the Bluegrass state,” Morris said.
Morris joins current U.S. Rep. Andy Barr and former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron who have previously announced they will run in the GOP primary election for McConnell’s seat.
McConnell had announced in February that he will not seek reelection in 2026. He joined the U.S. Senate in 1984 and served as the GOP’s leader in the chamber from 2007-24 before giving up the position to Sen. John Thune of South Dakota. His time as Senate leader is the longest by a member of any party in history.
Cameron wasted no time and shared he would be running minutes after McConnell said he wouldn’t seek reelection. Barr, who has represented Kentucky’s Sixth Congressional District since 2013, announced he would also run for the Senate seat.
Barr’s campaign quickly released a statement that began: “When Nate Morris says it’s time to take out the trash, he must be talking about his own past.
“Nate is the only candidate who didn’t support Donald Trump in the 2024 primary — he gave $5,000 to Nikki Haley, championed radical DEI policies, used diversity quotas for hiring, and even hired Obama and Kamala’s campaign manager to help run his company,” the statement reads. “Nate Morris is pretending to be MAGA now, but he can’t run from all the liberal trash in his past.”
“When I’m in the Senate, I’ll be President Trump’s biggest ally,” Barr said in another press release that followed Morris’ announcement. “Others in this race have opposed the President.”
On the Democratic side, state Rep. Pamela Stevenson launched her campaign in April. She has represented House District 43 in Frankfort since 2021 and has a background as a colonel in the U.S. Air Force.
The primaries are set to take place on May 19, 2026, before the general election later that year on Nov. 3.
