LAWRENCEBURG, Ky. (LEX 18) — With five voting days left in Kentucky, Senator Mitch McConnell hit the campaign trail on Wednesday. He made stops in Smithfield, Florence, and Lawrenceburg.
In Lawrenceburg, McConnell highlighted his power in Washington - starting with his influence on the Supreme Court.
"It was a wonderful birthday present for Hillary Clinton to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court Monday night - on her birthday," said McConnell. "Oh, I'm sure she was so grateful. So grateful."
McConnell has spent the last few years confirming many conservative judges. He told his supporters the move is a strategic way to change America.
"I thought to myself, what is the single most long-lasting - long-lasting - thing we can do to help America? Well, legislation, of course, can be changed based upon the next election," said McConnell. "What can't be changed, if you do the selection process and you do it quickly, is to put young men and women on the bench who believe in the quaint notion that maybe the job of a judge is to follow the law."
He also made it clear this plan was possible because of his leadership role in the Senate.
"We had a marvelous opportunity. The game plan worked perfectly," said McConnell. "One of the great advantages of being the majority leader is I get to decide in what order we do things, and amazingly enough, every time we had a judge, they came up first."
His leadership role is something McConnell has been spending a lot of time talking about in this race. On Wednesday, he told his supporters that Kentucky is stronger with him in power.
"What would happen if my opponent were elected? Her first vote in the Senate would be to make Chuck Schumer from New York the majority leader of the Senate - transferring that power from Kentucky to New York," said McConnell. "We're not going to let that happen, are we?"
However, some election models and polls show that Republicans may lose control of the Senate. McConnell says he believes it's a "50-50 proposition."
"We have a lot of exposure. This is a huge republican class because it's the class that took the majority in 2014, and now I've got a lot of people up, 23 Republicans, only 12 Democrats," said McConnell. "There are dog fights all over the country."
However, McConnell says he feels good going into election night when it comes to his own race.
"I'm confident that I'm going to be successful, but you know, I think we ought to be respectful of the process," said McConnell. "I've made my case to the people of Kentucky. I think it's a convincing case. I think it would be a dramatic loss of influence for Kentucky - both nationally and here at home - to trade me in for somebody that's going to make Chuck Schumer majority leader. I think Kentucky understands that argument. I think that argument is going to prevail next Tuesday."
As McConnell continues his campaigning, Kentucky is currently undergoing a significant surge in coronavirus cases. Due to this, McConnell says they will not be going into any areas considered "red zones" by the governor.
"We had planned to go to a couple of counties that were declared red zones yesterday," said McConnell. "We will not be doing that."
McConnell also specified that masks and social distancing would be enforced at places where they do end up going to.
