Mitch McConnell’s PAC throws Kari Lake under the bus
Although he is stepping down as GOP leader in the U.S. Senate, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) plans to serve out the rest of his term and is very invested in efforts to flip Congress' upper chamber.
The McConnell-associated Senate Leadership Fund is aggressively supporting Republican Senate candidates it believes can help bring that about, but according to Axios reporters Stephen Neukam and Hans Nichol, Arizona's Kari Lake isn't one of them.
Neukam and Nichols report that the Senate Leadership Fund "has not reserved a single dollar to help" Lake "in the final weeks of the campaign."
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Lake and Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona) are competing for the U.S. Senate seat presently held by centrist Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Arizona), who isn't seeking reelection.
"Senate Republicans appear to be abandoning Arizona in favor of toss-ups in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio," Neukam and Nichols report. "Last week, Senate Leadership Fund booked $42 million in new ad spending through Election Day to support Senate candidates in Blue Wall states."
The reporters add, "It also made a last-minute $6.2 million ad buy in Nevada, where GOP candidate Sam Brown is trailing incumbent Sen. Jacky Rosen in all the public polls."
Gallego is ahead of Lake, a far-right MAGA conspiracy theorist who has bitterly clashed with traditional conservatives like activist Meghan McCain and former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming), in a long list of polls.
Marist found Lake trailing Gallego by 8 percent in a poll released on October 24, and Gallego was ahead by 9 percent in a recent CBS News poll.
Other polls released in late October showed Gallego ahead by 4 percent (AtlasIntel and InsiderAdvantage).
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Read Axios' full report at this link.
