Andy Barr taps GOP operative from Scott Jennings’ firm to manage US Senate run
Andy Barr has found a new manager for his U.S. Senate campaign this year.
Political operative Blake Gober will replace the late Tatum Dale, who passed away unexpectedly at age 35 on Dec. 24, in the leading role for Barr’s Republican campaign for the seat of outgoing Sen. Mitch McConnell.
Gober, was most recently an account director at RunSwitch PR, a Louisville-based consulting and public relations firm founded in 2012 by popular conservative commentator Scott Jennings. He will start working for Barr, who has represented the 6th Congressional District for 13 years, on Monday.
Barr wrote in a statement to the Herald-Leader that Gober will help “honor Tatum Dale’s legacy.”
“My campaign will keep fighting every day to honor Tatum Dale’s legacy and finish the great campaign she started with us. Blake Gober is the perfect person to step into this campaign with us. His depth of work on the campaign trail, his experience as a Marine, and his role as a faith leader will be invaluable to our team. I’m thrilled to welcome him aboard,” Barr wrote.
Gober is a Marine veteran with nearly 15 years of campaign experience, according to the Barr campaign’s release.
RunSwitch PR is well-known in Kentucky politics, especially among Republicans. Both RunSwitch and Jennings, its founder, have strong ties to McConnell. Jennings is a close adviser to McConnell and sometimes referred to as a protege of the senator, who recently made history as the longest-serving Senate party leader ever.
Jennings’ name was floated by some in Kentucky politics as a potential candidate himself. Jennings did not file for any office in Kentucky as of the Jan. 9 filing deadline.
Prior to joining RunSwitch PR in March 2025, Gober worked for more than five years at TLC Political. In that role, Gober raised more than $50 million for candidates and helped McConnell’s 2020 reelection campaign, according to Gober’s LinkedIn profile.
Gober wrote in the press release that he is proud to join the campaign. “The foundation that Tatum Dale laid for this campaign is what will spur us on to victory in the Republican primary. Andy Barr is the only candidate in this race with the organization and resources necessary to win and to help President Trump Make America Great Again,” Gober wrote.
Barr, who has raised the most money of any candidate so far, is up against serious competition in the Republican primary. Former attorney general Daniel Cameron is currently leading in all publicly available polls and Lexington tech entrepreneur has strong ties to Trump’s inner circle.
Late last year, Cameron’s campaign got a new campaign manager, Nathanael Hirt, after the previous one left to join another campaign. Hirt was most recently campaign manager for GOP Virginia attorney general Jason Miyares’ reelection campaign; Miyares lost in a close race to a controversial Democrat.
In 2023, Gober made national news for his story of wrongful arrest for stealing a car he had rented from Hertz. Those charges were dismissed with prejudice shortly after a report from CBS News on the situation.
This story was originally published January 12, 2026 at 9:11 AM.
