Now, working to hold on to his job in what is shaping up as a bad year for Republicans, Mr. McConnell is counting on voters to express their gratitude for the federal largess as he tries to fend off a spirited challenge from Bruce Lunsford, a Democratic businessman with rural roots and a fortune made in health care.

“The biggest issue in this race is whether or not our small state is going to continue to have a person of significant clout in Washington or whether we are to trade that person in for a rookie,” said Mr. McConnell, slightly dressed down for the festival in a barn jacket with a leather collar and “Mitch” stitched on its front. He was accompanied by his wife, Elaine L. Chao, the labor secretary and only remaining member of the original Bush cabinet.

Mr. McConnell’s focus on federal aid illustrates how he and other lawmakers view such legislative earmarks as valuable political currency back home despite their increasingly bad name in Washington. It also shows that in the current hostile environment, Mr. McConnell has decided to focus less on overarching policy issues than on old-fashioned pork.

His opponent, who is pushing a “Ditch Mitch” theme, says it is with good reason. Mr. McConnell may sprinkle money around the state, but the Lunsford campaign calculated it at about $30 per capita last year, an amount the Democrat labels “chump change.” Mr. Lunsford says the Republican leader has teamed with President Bush to create an economic catastrophe and block health and tax policies more valuable to Kentuckians over the long haul than a few local projects.

“Those two together have brought an economic crisis in this country that we haven’t seen since the Great Depression,” Mr. Lunsford told a crowd at the Broughtontown Community Center outside Crab Orchard in Lincoln County. “They had their chance.”