Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin and Donald Trump Jr. made news for all the wrong reasons a month ago when they were photographed holding a rally in a mostly-empty arena. Politico’s Alex Isenstadt reported this week that Bevin was quite pissed, and that he quickly transferred campaign operations away from campaign manager Davis Paine and to another GOP strategist. Paine has retained his title, but Isenstadt writes that this campaign shakeup came about at least in part because of how badly the rally with Trump went.
In a rarity, the Trump team doesn’t seem to have been at fault for an event gone wrong. Unnamed sources told Isenstadt that Trump’s advisers wanted to assemble the crowd in a small ballroom, but Paine instead chose the large arena. The result of that choice can be seen here.
Meanwhile, Bevin and his allies at the RGA have spent the last few weeks running ad after ad (including this racist offering from Bevin) arguing that Beshear opposes banning sanctuary cities, and the fact that Kentucky doesn’t actually have any sanctuary cities hasn’t deterred them one bit. The RGA seems convinced this is the right strategy in this very red state, and they’re out with two more commercials (here and here) tying Beshear to national progressives and arguing that he’s not “tough on illegal immigration.” Beshear recently launched a 15-second response ad saying that as an attorney general, he’s “certified that Kentucky has no sanctuary cities.”