'Rich Mitch' Bashed In New Republican Lincoln Project Ad As Kentucky Suffers

The never-Trumper Republican Lincoln Project has set its sights in a scathing new ad on Senate Majority Leader “Rich Mitch” McConnell of Kentucky, contrasting the plush life he’s forged for himself while in office with his state’s poor in various social metrics.

The 60-second spot features several shots of the Republican’s signature cat-who-swallowed-the-canary smile while noting that he’s made tens of millions of dollars since first winning his Senate seat in 1984, when he “didn’t have much money,” says the narrator in a folksy Southern drawl.

McConnell, seeking his seventh term in November, has “spent most of his time making deals for himself — not so much for Kentucky,” the spot says.

Kentucky ranks 40th in job opportunity in the nation, 45th in education, and 43rd in health care, the ad says. “After 35 years, Kentuckians are still waitin’ for the kind of opportunities Mitch worked so hard to give himself,” the narrator concludes.

The political action committee for the Lincoln Project, a group comprised of several prominent GOP figures who adamantly oppose President Donald Trump, intends to spend more than $300,000 this week to run the spot on TV and in digital ads in Kentucky, reports The Louisville Courrier Journal.

McConnell was picked as a Lincoln Project target in part because of his actions to stymy Trump’s impeachment trial stemming from the president’s pressure on Ukraine to launch an investigation into political rival Joe Biden, said attorney and group co-founder George Conway.

“When he fixed the impeachment trial by blocking evidence of Trump’s high crimes and misdemeanors, McConnell violated and abased the solemn oaths he took as a United States Senator,” Conway, who’s married to White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, said in a statement. “Add in the fact that, as our ad shows, he’s managed to do much better for himself than for the people of Kentucky, and it becomes a no-brainer: McConnell has to go.”

McConnell’s campaign dismissed the ad and the Lincoln Project as ineffective.

“No scam PAC of grifters has ever been less relevant and no group of D.C. consultants will be forgotten faster than these thieves who bet everything on three days of dishonest ads in Kentucky,” the campaign said in a statement.

The ad was trending on Twitter just hours after its release. The Lincoln Project focus on video ads has resulted in major circulation on social media. Its recent “Mourning In America” and “Trump Will Lie” ( people will die) videos about the COVID-19 crisis scored significant traffic.

Trump was so incensed by the “Mourning” video that he tweeted about it, calling the Lincoln Project founders “losers.” That, in turn, brightened the spotlight on the ad.

McConnell, 78, remains favored to win reelection, though he may face a competitive race from the likely Democratic Senate nominee, former Marine combat pilot Amy McGrath, 44. The primary to pick McConnell’s Democratic challenger is scheduled for June 23.

Check out the Lincoln Project ad up top.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.