LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18)– Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell officially kicked off his re-election campaign with a new video.
Around the 1:41 mark, there’s the voice of Hey Kentucky’s Matt Jones, who is considering trying to take the seat for the Democrats.
“Mitch McConnell signed off on the final version of a bill that legalizes industrial hemp, which should have a big effect on Kentucky,” you hear Jones say on the video. Jones spoke with LEX 18’s Conroy Delouche about the video and why he thinks that clip was used.
“But I’m sure they used that, my voice, because, in case I run, to say, ‘see here’s him praising McConnell,'” said Jones.
The host of KSR and Hey Kentucky! told LEX 18 in March 2018 that he would decide about running in 2020 for the US Senate seat after Senator McConnell announced his own decision.
Now that the Senator has launched his campaign, Jones told LEX 18 that it is too soon to say if he is running in 2020, but that he would decide sometime in June or July.
“Mitch McConnell is a little like Darth Vader. I mean, he sort of the king of the Evil Empire in some ways,” said Jones. “He is ruthless when it comes to being on campaigns, And so you just have to decide, do I want to do that?”
Jones, a Democrat, reaffirmed that the hemp bill is good for the state. He also believes the passage of the bill could have happened 20 years ago.
McConnell’s campaign video touts his own accomplishments, including the Farm Bill, supreme court appointees, the economy, and the job market. But Jones said that the senator has not done enough to help Kentucky, pointing to the decline in the coal and tobacco industries.
“He has done such destruction to the American political system, that someone needs to beat him,” Jones said.
