McConnell and Grimes's first public encounter thrust Fancy Farm into the spotlight. | AP Photos McConnell, Grimes face off

Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell faced off Saturday against Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes at the heavily anticipated 133rd Fancy Farm political forum.

The candidates pulled no punches at the traditional red-meat slugfest broadcast nationwide on C-SPAN and online by Kentucky Education Television.


McConnell, who spoke first, avoided direct attacks on his opponent, instead speaking in broad strokes: “Over the next 15 months, we are going to decide what kind of America we want … Barack Obama’s vision for America or Kentucky’s.”

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“Kentucky’s voice is the voice of opposition to the Obama agenda, and I’m proud of that. That’s why every liberal in America is out to beat us next year.”

Grimes, who followed GOP Rep. Ed Whitfield on stage, took direct swipes at McConnell: “Sen. McConnell is the most unpopular senator among Democrats but Republicans, as well. … There’s a reason he’s so disliked. There is a disease of dysfunction in Washington, D.C., and after 30 years, Sen. McConnell is in the center of it. As long as he remains in D.C., D.C. will stand for dysfunctional capitol.”

The first public encounter between incumbent and challenger in the high-profile race thrust the annual Fancy Farm picnic, held on the grounds of St. Jerome Catholic Church in the western Kentucky county of Graves, into the national spotlight.

The boisterous, daylong event comes on the heels of a poll released last week by Democratic firm Public Policy Polling showing Grimes leading McConnell 45 percent to 44 percent in the race, with 11 percent undecided.

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McConnell, 71, the Senate Minority Leader, is Democrats’ No. 1 target nationwide ahead of the 2014 midterm elections. He also faces a primary challenge from Louisville businessman Matt Bevin, who also shared the stage.

Grimes, 34, who just has nearly two years under her belt as Kentucky secretary of state, last week painted the five-term senator as Washington’s “guardian of gridlock.” She’s also distanced herself from the policies of President Barack Obama, which are unpopular in the Bluegrass State.

Citing the support of tea party favorite Rand Paul, Kentucky’s junior senator, McConnell railed against outside influences in the state’s elections. Pointedly, he described Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as “a Nevada yes-man for Obama.”

He also leveraged dissatisfaction with the administration’s policies back home.

“The liberals are worried because, just as I predicted, Obamacare is a disaster for America. I fought them every step of the way on their government takeover, and we stand up to their war on coal. As long as I am in the Senate, Kentucky will have a voice instead of San Francisco and Martha’s Vineyard.”

McConnell, wearing an open-neck shirt, looked relaxed. He even cracked an Anthony Weiner joke.

( WATCH: Grimes to McConnell: 'I don't scare easy')

Grimes, in turn, kissed her grandmother before taking the podium and delivered an assured, confident address. She hit McConnell on minimum wage, women’s rights and his “empty rhetoric” on coal.

She, too, cited Paul, jabbing at his tea party links and his visit this weekend to Iowa. “Now I know Sen. McConnell believes I’m not right for the job. But do I really need to apologize for having more government experience than Rand Paul?”

And she frequently returned to a familiar theme: slamming McConnell’s time in Washington. “The GOP has come to stand for gridlock, obstruction and partisanship,” she said to cheers and boos. “If doctors told Sen. McConnell he had a kidney stone, he’d refuse to pass it.”

Bevin, an investment fund manager who has attracted support from tea party groups, spoke last out of the trio.

“Mitch McConnell has disappeared. … Where’s Mitch?” he asked the crowd, alluding to McConnell’s time spent in the Senate chamber. “The people of Kentucky have been wondering that for a while now.”

In a reference to his family’s bell-manufacturing business and above the sound of bell-ringing supporters, Bevin said: “Let me tell you something senator: Ask not for whom the bell tolls, senator; they toll for you. Because the people of Kentucky have had enough.”

He attacked McConnell on illegal immigrant amnesty, Wall Street bailouts and local jobs.

At her first campaign rally last week, Grimes told POLITICO that she was “not going to be bullied” by McConnell’s bruising campaign tactics. “The goal is not just [to keep it] close; the goal is to win,” she said.

Jesse Benton, McConnell’s campaign manager, continued his camp’s verbal attack.

“This campaign will be about issues, not the platitudes and vague generalities Ms. Grimes prefers,” he said. “She will have to answer why she has endorsed gun control, taxpayer-funded abortion, amnesty for illegal immigrants, burdensome new EPA regulations, tax hikes [and] massive new spending and why she thinks it is a ‘waste of time’ to repeal Obamacare.”

Grimes says she supports the Second Amendment but is for expanding background checks for gun purchases. But she has not yet revealed her position on some hot-button issues in the dyed-red state: abortion, taxes and gay marriage.

In a possible sign of how seriously McConnell is taking both challengers, his chief of staff, Josh Holmes, has stepped down to focus specifically on the senator’s reelection campaign.

The time-limited speech forum, while not pitting the candidates directly against each other in a debate setting, nonetheless gave an insight into the dynamics that permeate the race: establishment versus upstart, experience versus youth and male versus female.

The race will have national ramifications also on the balance of the Senate, which Democrats have held for the past two cycles.

The candidates warmed up their acts with breakfast speeches to separate audiences: McConnell slamming “left-wingers” while not referring to Grimes by name during his entire speech, and Grimes saying McConnell’s days are “numbered.”

Adam Sneed contributed to this report.