This week, the liberal media has begun pushing Matt Bevin, a supposed Tea Party opponent to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) in the Senatorial primary. On Monday, The Hill reported that McConnell “could see a primary challenge from local businessman Matt Bevin, who sources say is reaching out to Tea Party groups in the state to gauge support for a 2014 Senate run.” According to Louisville Tea Party president Sarah Duran, “We met with him to just discuss our feelings about the Senator.”
Bevin is a massively wealthy owner of Bevin Brothers Manufacturing, a bell-making company based in Connecticut. Bevin has taken state grant money to rebuild its factor after a fire. United Kentucky Tea Party spokesman John Kemper had no idea who Bevin was, according to WFPL’s Phillip Bailey; neither did Northern Kentucky Tea Party President Larry Robinson. In 2010, Bevin made several contributions to Republican causes, including two sizeable contributions to Rand Paul late in the campaign; during the 2012 cycle, he gave some $9,000 to the Republican Party of Kentucky, and $2,500 to the Romney campaign.
Bevin may be a legitimate Tea Party candidate. He may not be. But the media’s early involvement in promoting potential rivals to McConnell may foreshadow a leftist attempt to back certain primary contenders in order to soften up general election targets on behalf of Democrats.
Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the book “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013). Follow him at Twitter @benshapiro.
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