Barr projected to win Kentucky GOP Senate primary

That's right, Major. I remember one of the first elections I covered in 2019 was the gubernatorial race between Andy Beshear, the Democrat, and the then Governor Matt Bevin, the Republican. And when I was talking to voters, I heard a lot of people talk then about Daniel Cameron, who was seen as a protégé of McConnell, someone that could replace him, potentially in the Senate. Fast forward six, seven years later, Cameron was declared a loser almost immediately once polls closed. It really shows that, while McConnell has shifted the Kentucky political apparatus towards Republicans, in the past 5 to 10 years you've seen that shift even further to match President Trump's version of the Republican Party.

It is a Trump Kentucky Republican Party, no longer a McConnell Republican Kentucky party. Aaron Navarro, thank you so very much. What to go to Nikole Killion and Caitlin Huey-Burns in Washington, DC. Nikole, your thoughts on what we've seen play out so far this evening. Yeah. Well, I think just to piggyback off of what you just said, it certainly marks a transition to a new era in Kentucky politics. When you about Mitch McConnell, someone who has served for some four decades now, he is the longest-serving party leader in Senate history, even though he stepped down from leadership. But his impact still, I think, is wide reaching, particularly when you talk about the US Senate. And so while, yes, this may now be Trump's party in Kentucky now, I think just like we have seen in some of these other races, McConnell, while sometimes he has sided with the president, there are many times where he has not. And so I think you can also look at that as a dynamic in the race, particularly in terms of McConnell, because his name wasn't really invoked in this contest, nor was his endorsement really sought out. So to your point about just his while his influence may seem waning, at the same time I think we also have to remember what he has contributed not only to Kentucky politics, but certainly to the US Senate as well, where he continues to stand up for his ideals, the things that he believes in. And I think that's something that he will continue to do going forward.

And Caitlin Huey-Burns, I want to ask you about something that I think is part of the dynamic of the president involving himself in so many of these internal Republican Party primary battles. It seems to me that he knows, whatever the results of the 2020 midterms are, he only has after that two more years in office. But what he wants after he departs is a Congress, House and Senate, with more MAGA-aligned Republicans, or the highest number he can create, in these primary contests because every single time the president gets involved, he tends to get his way. That's right. He is certainly reshaping this Congress. But you have to ask whether this is in his favor in the long run. If you think about just the next couple of months, you have a couple of lawmakers who will be in what I call a YOLO moment, which is that they are now unencumbered by the politics of their party. Take a look at Cassidy, who voted for the War Powers Resolution today. You have Thom Tillis in North Carolina, who's not running anymore, who has been a critic of the president and his own party. Obviously, Massie has been running that way for a while now but will be even more unencumbered. And we'll see what John Cornyn next week does if he loses his primary. And the other point is, Major, that there is no doubt that the president has a hold on his party. As we've talked about all night, this is Trump's Republican Party. It has been for a while. But tonight really solidified that. But a primary is very different from a general election. Trump is the biggest driver for Republicans in elections. He's also the biggest driver for Democrats. And that is something that is going to-- that these both parties are going to contend with, but especially Republicans running in some of these more difficult battleground states. It's one thing to have a hold on your party in the primary, another about what that means in a general election, especially in a place like Georgia and other battlegrounds, where they'll be fighting for control of that chamber. There is referenced sometimes by the president to a RINO Republican, Republican in Name Only. Maybe we will have an emerging YOLO Republican conference. Caitlin Huey-Burns, thank you very much.