FreedomWorks’ PAC praised Bevin as the more fiscally sound choice. FreedomWorks backs Bevin

FreedomWorks endorsed Mitch McConnell’s primary challenger Matt Bevin on Wednesday, marking another conservative group that is standing against the Senate minority leader.

FreedomWorks’ PAC praised Bevin as the more fiscally sound choice and criticized McConnell for “helping the Democrats” fund Obamacare during the fall. The GOP leader opposed a strategy backed by conservative favorite Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to vote down any spending bill that did not defund the law. That tactic fueled a weekslong government shutdown that McConnell ended by cutting a deal with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).


In an interview, FreedomWorks PAC President Matt Kibbe said his organization and Kentucky’s conservative grassroots believe that McConnell could be beaten in November by Democratic candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes, while Bevin has more upside because he’s a newcomer in Kentucky politics.

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“It doesn’t make sense to go with McConnell,” Kibbe said. “I think he’s very vulnerable to losing the seat. He just isn’t capable of driving policy anymore.”

One of the reasons for backing Bevin is that “he’s not Mitch McConnell,” Kibbe added.

The Kentucky senator’s campaign quickly blasted FreedomWorks for the endorsement, saying the group has transformed its work in recent years from “conservative reform to conservative cannibalism.”

“A group that used to pride itself on grass-roots empowerment has endorsed a self-funding New England millionaire who takes taxpayer bailouts for his uninsured business, says he is a constitutionalist when he knows little about the Constitution and falsely claims he attended MIT,” said McConnell’s campaign spokeswoman Allison Moore.

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FreedomWorks’ PAC joined the Senate Conservatives Fund and the Madison Project in siding with Bevin, who will need every bit of help he can receive in a race against McConnell’s deep-pocketed campaign, which is also drawing the support of the national Republican Party apparatus and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

FreedomWorks won’t pour money into local media markets like some outside groups, however, preferring to focus on the “unsexy” ground game of yard signs and organizing, Kibbe said.

“It’s all about the ground game,” he said. “We won’t be spending any money on TV ads.”

A fourth conservative group, the Club for Growth, remains undecided but is “watching the race,” a spokesman said Wednesday.