Kentucky Sports Radio host Matt Jones is convinced his new book will appeal to readers on both sides of the aisle when it's released next year.

“This is going to be my love letter to Kentucky," Jones said Thursday morning during a live taping in Lexington of his daily radio show. "Even if you like Mitch McConnell, I think you’ll like this.”

That's an interesting statement about a book titled "Mitch, Please! How Mitch McConnell Sold Out Kentucky (and America Too)," and a book written by someone who is openly considering a run against McConnell in the 2020 election.

But despite the eye-catching title, featuring a cover illustrated by Courier Journal contributing cartoonist Marc Murphy, Jones said the premise of the story is one that will appeal to readers in every corner of Kentucky – literally.

The plan, Jones said, is to spend the next four months visiting each of Kentucky's 120 counties to dig up 120 stories "to showcase how I feel like Sen. McConnell has kind of forgotten about his state. And I do it one county at a time. And I write about each county."

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Sure, it'll include some not-so-nice stories about McConnell, Jones said, but it's about more than the senator.

"Leave aside whatever your personal feelings are, if you like Mitch McConnell or you don't," he said. "... What I'm trying to do is to give a voice to a place that I think is ignored nationally, and tell the stories. It's going to be funny. It's not just going to be serious.

"Even though it's about McConnell, that's how it can help sell, it's really about the state."

Jones, who is co-writing the book with Chris Tomlin, said he was approached by publisher Simon & Schuster in June about a possible book deal and that he's been working on it for a month and a half. The book has to be finished this fall, he said, and will be released in March.

A Democrat, Jones has openly flirted with running against McConnell for months. In July he was pulled from hosting duties of the TV show "Hey Kentucky!" as he continued to consider entering the race. Jones had been critical of potential McConnell challenger Amy McGrath, saying "I just don't know if she can beat McConnell" on the program in March.

Jones did not use Thursday's show to say if he would enter the race – "I'm doing this whether I run or not," he said.

"I agreed to do this book at a time I thought I wasn’t running. So just so people know, this doesn’t have anything to do with that," Jones said. "… Honestly, when I was in New York in June (at the book's pitch meeting), I assumed I probably wasn’t going to do it. So this is not a precursor to anything."

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KSR travels across the commonwealth for much of the year for live tapings in cities across Kentucky. Jones said on Thursday's program that he has already spent visited almost every county in Kentucky, spending time in all but a few far western counties.

An Amazon link to preorder the book will be available in coming days, he said.

Lucas Aulbach can be reached at laulbach@courier-journal.com, 502-582-4649 or on Twitter @LucasAulbachCJ. Support strong local journalism and subscribe: www.courier-journal.com/lucasa.