KY entrepreneur Nate Morris launches ‘referendum on Mitch McConnell’ Senate bid
.jpg "U.S. Senate candidate Nate Morris")
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Nate Morris launched a 2026 Senate bid casting himself as a McConnell critic.
- Morris vied for MAGA support with attacks on immigration, judges and rivals' records.
- Critics cite Morris’ Rubicon record and past political ties to question authenticity.
One of the biggest political races in recent Kentucky history has a new entrant.
Nate Morris, a Republican tech entrepreneur from Lexington, announced Thursday evening that he would run to replace Sen. Mitch McConnell, who is not seeking reelection in 2026.
The announcement came during an appearance on a podcast hosted by President Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump, Jr.
Morris and allies have been hinting for months that this announcement could come. He has made headlines leading up to the announcement with his disparaging comments toward McConnell, going so far as to call him “scum” on a right wing podcast.
In a statement that accompanied Morris’ appearance, he wrote that he was running to “bring this seat back to the people” and emphasized his own humble beginnings.
“I am proud that I am a ninth generation Kentuckian. I was raised by a single mother. When I came into the world, my mother was on food stamps,” Morris wrote. “We have been fighting and scrapping for everything we have, like most Kentuckians. Nineteen of my family members worked at an auto plant and I have been able to live the American dream because of how great this country is.”
Morris joins two other prominent Republicans who have been running for months now.
Rep. Andy Barr, whose 6th Congressional District covers Central Kentucky, and former Attorney General Daniel Cameron both have significant funding and name ID.
On the Democratic side, Kentucky House Minority Floor Leader Pam Stevenson, D-Louisville, is the lone Democrat with significant name ID to have announced.
Hewing far to the right on most issues, Morris recently called for a moratorium on all immigration into the U.S. to focus on deportations. He claimed the future of “Western civilization” was on the line.
“Western civilization is on the line with America’s borders. America is the last line of defense for the survival of Western theology, Western society, and what Western civilization means to the rest of the world,” Morris told Breitbart in a recent interview.
Though McConnell bashing has become a continual target for Morris, he and the senator have some history. Morris interned for both McConnell and his wife, then-cabinet secretary Elaine Chao, during his undergraduate years.
In the statement, Morris called the race a “referendum on Mitch McConnell’s record.”
“You have two McConnellites who owe everything to Mitch McConnell versus the outside business guy that’s running as the MAGA candidate. I think that contrast is gonna be very, very striking to Kentuckians all over the state because they’ve had enough of Mitch,” Morris wrote.
Aside from his relationship with Trump, Jr., Morris is friends with Vice President JD Vance and has lined up Andy Surabian, a key member of Vance’s circle, to work for his campaign according to the Wall Street Journal.
President Trump, whose endorsement is seen as a golden ticket to the nomination, has long been a critic of McConnell, who recently made history as the longest-serving party leader in U.S. Senate history.
Cameron and Barr have focused less on their evaluations of McConnell in their campaigns.
Barr has asserted that the race is “not about Mitch McConnell.” Cameron’s criticisms of the sitting senator — he was a longtime member of McConnell’s staff before running for office — have been far more tame than Morris’.
Who is Nate Morris?
Morris, 44, has ties to Vice President JD Vance and Donald Trump, Jr., who said previously that any 2026 contender vying for his endorsement needed to break with McConnell as Morris did.
According to his website, Morris was the first Kentuckian to be named to Fortune Magazine’s 40 Under 40 list and is the youngest inductee ever to the Kentucky Entrepreneur Hall of Fame.
Morris’ personal wealth is likely significant.
In 2022 alone, he made $41 million as Rubicon CEO according to industry news outlet Waste Dive. Also in 2022, Rubicon went public on the New York Stock Exchange in a $1.7 billion deal.
Rubicon’s fortunes took a turn for the worse shortly thereafter.
According to Yahoo Finance, it started trading at around $60 per share, and, as of this week, it was trading at around 6 cents. Last year, the New York Stock Exchange sent the company a delisting notice, which the company said it would appeal.
Early criticism of Morris from other Republicans has centered around his conduct while running Rubicon or prior to his flirtation with higher office in Kentucky.
They point to the company’s floundering, the inclusion of high-profile progressive political strategist David Plouffe on the company board, and Morris’ relatively small contribution to Nikki Haley’s PAC in 2021 as evidence of flip-flopping. Haley ended up running against Trump for the 2024 nomination, but said at the time that she wouldn’t. Morris contributed $50,000 to Trump’s campaign in May of 2024.
A statement from Barr’s spokesperson said that Morris must be talking about his own past when he says the tagline “it’s time to take out the trash.”
“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 spokesperson wrote. “Nate Morris is pretending to be MAGA now, but he can’t run from all the liberal trash in his past. Kentucky conservatives won’t fall for this fraud.”
Cameron’s team released a laundry list of items detailing Morris’ allegedly “fake” character. It mostly includes actions Morris took as CEO of Rubicon, whether that was his company’s embrace of certain pro-diversity principles or its overall financial standing.
“President Trump’s America First movement is making our country greater than ever before. The biggest threat here in Kentucky and to our movement is a globalist who dons a MAGA hat and pretends to be America First now that we are on the rise. His name is Nate Morris,” Cameron wrote in a social media post.
Morris is no stranger to politics.
Aside from his internships in Washington, he was a George W. Bush “Maverick” fundraiser who brought in serious campaign cash to the 2004 ex-president’s campaign as a 23-year-old. Morris was also instrumental in raising money for one of Sen. Rand Paul’s reelection efforts.
Morris grew up in Louisville. His grandfather was at one point the president of a United Auto Workers union at a local Ford plant.
He is married to Jane Mosbacher Morris, the daughter and granddaughter of Texas businessmen and cabinet officials who served under the administrations of George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.
What did Morris say on Trump, Jr. podcast?
Trump, Jr., whose interview was sympathetic throughout, gave Morris the opportunity to tick through his campaign priorities.
McConnell was the red thread through it all.
He compared his run against Barr and Cameron — he’s called them “cronies” of McConnell — to Trump’s previous political fights.
“Your father is undefeated when it comes to defeating political bosses. He beat the Clintons, he beat the Bushes, he beat the Bidens. ... I look at Mitch McConnell as the final boss for your father 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.
The businessman highlighted immigration as a potential sticking point in the race, coming out strong against birthright citizenship and supporting a complete immigration moratorium.
Morris also voiced support for punishing judges who make rulings he disagrees with and who are, he claims, “trying to hold the MAGA agenda hostage.”
“We’ve got a lot of these judges, and, by the way, a lot of these are the ones that Mitch McConnell takes credit for... If they don’t get the message, they need to be defunded, and if that doesn’t work, they’re going to have to be impeached,” Morris said.
The newly minted candidate also spoke at length praising Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a former Democratic nominee for president who joined Trump’s cabinet as the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Kennedy rose to prominence as the country’s leading skeptic of vaccines, and has taken action against some of them in his role. Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda also emphasizes personal well-being.
Morris had little positive to say about his top GOP competitors.
He derided Cameron as someone who “squandered” Trump’s endorsement in his five point loss to Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear in 2023. He also called Barr “an establishment, moderate squish.”
This story was originally published June 26, 2025 at 6:30 PM.
