LOUISVILLE, Ky. — When James Comer’s phone buzzed Monday night, he had just finished tangling with the three Republicans angling to crush him in next week’s Kentucky GOP gubernatorial primary. The campaign had hit its ugly zenith a week earlier, when Comer’s ex-girlfriend accused him of hitting her decades earlier when they were in college together.

The message on his phone, though, was an uplifting one: Hang in there. And it came from an unlikely source: Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).


“Basically, he tells me to keep my head up,” Comer told POLITICO after a local Republican Party function here on Thursday night. Comer began to explain that Paul himself had been “a victim” of similar controversies before an aide ended the interview.

Paul’s communication, during one of the nastiest Republican-on-Republican brawls in recent memory, was remarkable because the first-term senator, who announced a bid for president last month, has remained neutral in the four-way primary, despite close ties to Comer in the past. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, also from Kentucky, has declined to intervene in the race as well.

Their silence has been noticeable in a contest that has otherwise tested and frayed Republican allegiances in the close-knit state, featured a hail of super PAC spending and a host of personal attacks. Both senators also have a political stake in the outcome.

Paul needs the state’s next governor to help drive legal changes that will allow him to run for his Senate seat next year while he seeks the White House. And McConnell is standing by as the man who tried to unseat him last year — conservative businessman Matt Bevin — inches closer to the nomination.

Bevin, Comer and Louisville businessman Hal Heiner are locked in a three-way tie just days from next Tuesday’s primary, according to recent polls. All three candidates shrug off the significance of endorsements. “I’ve pretty much been on my own in the race, but I’m proud of what I’ve done,” said Comer, the state’s agriculture commissioner.

But in a race this close, the smallest shift of the needle could affect the outcome.

The winner will take on the all-but-certain Democratic nominee, Attorney General Jack Conway. Democrats have held Kentucky’s governorship for 36 of the last 40 years, a startling reality in a state that votes reliably Republican in federal elections.

The race features whispers of the familiar ideological divide within the Republican Party. Comer and Bevin have close ties to Paul’s more conservative wing of the party. Heiner, who narrowly lost a 2010 race for mayor of Democratic-leaning Louisville, has closer ties to the McConnell-led Republican establishment.

But it’s the personal stakes for Kentucky’s senators, both national GOP leaders, that make their silence curious.

If Bevin wins the nod for governor a year after McConnell spent millions to fend off his Senate challenge, forces loyal to the majority leader are signaling that they may not go to the mat for him.

“Kentucky Republicans have a way of working through primary battles to reunite in the general election. Of course, there are certainly some candidates who are easier to reunite behind than others,” said Josh Holmes, a former McConnell chief of staff and senior political adviser. Many former McConnell hands have fanned out to the Comer and Heiner camps throughout the primary.

Bevin said that if fellow Republicans fail to line up behind him in the general election, it would reflect “pettiness and divisiveness driven by things that are not in the best interests of the party.” Reminded that he declined to endorse McConnell last year after their ugly primary, Bevin argued that he supported McConnell in deed, rather than word. He doesn’t want McConnell’s endorsement, he said, just his support.

“What you want is people that are supportive of — and not working against — the mission,” he said.

Bevin seems to relish his ability to poke doubters in the eye.

“I’m like a zombie to some people,” Bevin said at a campaign stop in Lexington. “When I show up there’s a look of terror, like, ‘My gosh, I mean, was $20 million not enough to destroy that guy?’”

He also is girding for an all out assault on his candidacy in the final days of the race. “I’ve had nothing but the hammer coming down on me for two years. I don’t mind it. I’m hammer-proof at this point,” he said.

Though McConnell allies have been critical of Bevin throughout the primary, they’ve given no indication that there’s any concerted effort to beat Bevin back. And McConnell has given no indication that he’ll do anything but support the GOP nominee, even if it’s Bevin.

“Mitch is a loyal Republican. He will handle it better than a lot of us. He will treat Bevin a hell of a lot better than Bevin treated him,” said Bill Stone, former chairman of the Jefferson County Republican Party.

Paul’s role in the gubernatorial primary is more complicated. He needs the next governor’s help to push Republicans to embrace a caucus system that would let him run for Senate and president simultaneously. But he also has a longstanding friendship with Comer. Comer was one of Paul’s earliest supporters in the 2010 Senate race, endorsing the political newcomer while establishment forces — including McConnell — lined up behind then-Secretary of State Trey Grayson. Comer allies generally forgive Paul for declining to return the favor, but they often note quietly that they think Paul is in their corner.

“I think everybody knows that Rand Paul is endorsing Jamie,” said former Rep. Anne Northup (R-Ky.), a Comer supporter. Told that Paul hadn’t made a formal endorsement, Northup said she thought he had offered support and then noted that Comer had secured the backing of more elected officials than any of his opponents.

Comer said he wouldn’t mind the senator’s support but isn’t holding his breath.

“It wouldn’t hurt anything,” he said. “I understand that he’s running for president. I understand where the governor’s race is on the food chain with respect to him right now. But he made the decision to stay out of it and I respect his decision.”

Kentucky Republicans generally say Paul and McConnell’s silence is their shrewdest course. Picking a losing candidate could dent their image as influential leaders and present a distraction from their national endeavors. McConnell learned that lesson the hard way when his endorsement of Grayson backfired.

“Any of the three serious candidates in this race will beat Jack Conway,” said Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who predicted a Comer win on Tuesday.

“The last time I checked, Rand Paul’s running for president,” added Massie, a Paul ally. “Personally, I don’t think endorsements matter a whole lot, and they’re going to matter even less in the last week,” he said.

The candidates, for their part, say they haven’t discerned any behind-the-scenes work from Paul or McConnell either.

“They’ve said consistently, right from Day One, that they would stay out of the primary,” Heiner said Thursday after appearing with his adversaries at a forum on energy costs. “From what I can tell, they have lived up to that pledge and statement. This is about the Republican family deciding who can best take on Jack Conway in the fall.”