LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday was joined by Tea Party favorite Sen. Rand Paul as he kicked off the final day of a grueling midterm campaign that Republicans hope ends with him as the new majority leader-elect.
McConnell and Paul were scheduled to barnstorm Kentucky by plane, ending the seven-stop trip in Paul’s hometown of Bowling Green, perhaps a sign of what the junior senator’s support means to his senior colleague’s hard fought re-election bid.
Speaking to about 200 enthusiastic supporters inside an airplane hanger in Louisville before before boarding a small plane with Paul and wife Elaine Chao, McConnell said Republicans would take the country in a new direction if they win Senate control in Tuesday’s elections.
McConnell, who appears positioned to defeat Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes, said a Republican Senate would support policies that promote faster economic growth and ends the borrowing, spending and over-regulation of the Obama administration.
“Tomorrow we’re going to send a message, we’re going to send a message to President Obama,” Paul told the crowd. “This will be a repudiation of President Obama’s policies.”
“These people need to be stopped and it starts tomorrow night,” McConnell added.
Republicans need to win six Democratic-held seats to secure a Senate majority. Election forecasters give the GOP good odds but polls still showed a series of close races in Senate battlegrounds.
