Lt. Gov. Jenean Hampton and Gov. Matt Bevin in happier times

Kentucky Lt. Gov. Jenean Hampton filed a lawsuit on Thursday against Gov. Matt Bevin, a fellow Republican and her nominal boss, that argued that his administration illegally fired two of her senior aides this year. This is the latest, but most severe, fight between the two former allies in the last year, and it comes only a few months before Bevin faces the voters in November.

Bevin picked Hampton to be his running mate back in 2015, but the two have had a bad relationship for a while. While Hampton said that she wanted to run for re-election on Bevin’s ticket this year, the governor spent months talking about finding a new number two. In late January, just before the filing deadline passed, Bevin finally announced that state Sen. Ralph Alvarado would be his candidate for lieutenant governor rather than Hampton.

Hampton’s term lasts until December, and it’s created quite a toxic situation in the state capitol. In late January, days after Bevin replaced her on the ticket, Hampton hit the like button on a tweet reading, "I hope Matt Bevin's car won't start tomorrow morning and he's locked out of his house with nowhere to go. Yeah, I said it. #ThankUNext." The like immediately attracted attention and stayed up for an hour and a half. After removing it, Hampton herself tweeted, "For the record, I UNINTENTIONALLY hearted a tweet that was derogatory to @GovMattBevin. I don't pile onto mean-spirited tweets! #FatThumbs."

Around that same time, Hampton’s chief of staff Steve Knipper received a notice from a Finance Cabinet official that fired him without giving a reason. Knipper had just filed to seek the GOP nod for secretary of state, a move that defied Bevin’s directive that required any appointed members of the administration to resign if they run for office. Hampton attempted to reappoint Knipper, but Bevin’s Personnel Cabinet ignored her wishes. Knipper ended up taking a distant third in the primary.