Daniel Cameron launches 2026 U.S. Senate bid on heels of Mitch McConnell announcement
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Mitch McConnell won’t run again in 2026
Longtime Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell will not seek reelection next year, he announced Thursday, ending a decades-long run as one of the most powerful Republicans in the country. McConnell, first elected in 1984, is the longest-serving Senate party leader in U.S. history.
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Mitch McConnell is leaving the U.S. Senate, and Daniel Cameron wants to take his seat in Washington.
Cameron, the former Republican state attorney general who most recently lost against Gov. Andy Beshear in the 2023 governor’s race, announced Thursday afternoon he will run to represent Kentucky in the U.S. Senate in 2026.
“Kentucky, it’s time for a new generation of leadership in the U.S. Senate. Let’s do this,” Cameron wrote in a post on social media.
It included a graphic of his wife and two children.
The announcement came just minutes after longtime McConnell, the Louisville Republican, said in a late-morning Senate floor speech he would not run for reelection in 2026.
It’s quite likely Cameron could have company.
Central Kentucky Rep. Andy Barr has a flush campaign account that could transfer into a Senate race, and he has told fellow Republicans he intends to jump in.
There’s also Nate Morris, a businessman with ties to Vice President J.D. Vance who’s tried to carve out a lane as the sharpest McConnell critic.
Morris has aggressively castigated his would-be rivals for waiting on McConnell to make a decision even as he has yet to formally launch a campaign himself.
Kentucky’s other senator, Rand Paul, has served in the Senate since January 2011. His current term ends in 2028.
A similar announcement from Barr could be forthcoming.
Barr posted to social media shortly after McConnell’s speech that he’s received an “outpouring of support” and “will be making a decision” soon.
“As I’ve said before this announcement, I am considering running for Senate because Kentucky deserves a Senator who will fight for President Trump and the America First Agenda. I’ve done that every day in the House and would do so in the Senate,” Barr wrote.
Al Cross, a longtime Kentucky journalist and political observer, told the Herald-Leader that the timing of McConnell’s and Cameron’s announcements makes “coordination seem apparent.”
“I’m not sure how much punch there is left in the McConnell organization, but there’s some left. Maybe a lot, I don’t know. He’s clearly the senator’s protege, and the senator takes care of his protege,” Cross said.
He said he didn’t foresee the announcement edging out either Barr or Morris from jumping in. They have two key ingredients for running: political lanes and “ready money.”
“They’ve both got rationales, and both of them have ready money. Cameron does not have ready money, he’s going to have to go out and raise money,” Cross said.
Tres Watson, a Kentucky GOP operative and former party spokesperson, said that Cameron has a clear name ID advantage going into the race. But there are lanes for other candidates, he said. He pointed to a poll released last week by a firm with some ties to the Cameron operation.
“They released that poll that had him at 37% in the three-person race. That’s pretty low for someone with near-complete name ID among Kentucky Republicans,” Watson said.
He also thinks that the timing of the announcement might not benefit Cameron.
“If I were the Cameron campaign, I might have waited a few days before sending out that tweet because it gives him the appearance of coordination,” Watson said. “Whether it was coordinated or they just had it at the ready, it at least gives the appearance of it.
“I would think the last thing you would want is to be labeled as Mitch McConnell’s candidate.”
The only Democrat to have made an announcement for the office is state House Minority Leader Pamela Stevenson, D-Louisville. She filed to raise money for a campaign three weeks ago.
Staff for both Beshear and Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman posted to social media Thursday that the officeholders would not run for the Senate seat.
This story will be updated.
This story was originally published February 20, 2025 at 12:24 PM.
