Trump parachutes to KY to stump for Republicans in safe seats, give GOP nod in ‘tight race’

By McKenna Horsley | Kentucky Lantern

HIGHLAND HEIGHTS — President Donald Trump returned to Northern Kentucky for the sec­ond time this year in hopes of sway­ing GOP vot­ers in the com­mon­wealth to back Republicans at the bal­lot box. 

Despite gain­ing atten­tion from the Cincinnati area media mar­ket, the Saturday ral­ly at Northern Kentucky University focused heav­i­ly on Republican seats in Kentucky. Signs for two Trump-endorsed can­di­dates in Kentucky— U.S. Rep. Andy Barr in the Senate race and Ed Gallrein in the 4^th Congressional District — lined the roads around the are­na. Dates for Kentucky vot­ing flashed on the arena’s jum­botron, such as the Oct. 20 dead­line to request an absen­tee bal­lot and the start of ear­ly vot­ing, Oct. 29. The only Ohio Republican can­di­date to address the crowd was Eric Conroy, in the Buckeye state’s 1^st Congressional District. 

In addi­tion to again promis­ing $5,000 checks to adults if the GOP wins con­trol of Congress this fall, Trump also had a Kentucky-spe­cif­ic promise.

“The Department of War will be invest­ing $100 mil­lion in the phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­ny Antheia to revi­tal­ize a gigan­tic drug man­u­fac­tur­ing facil­i­ty in Winchester, Kentucky,” Trump said. The Kentucky Lantern reached out to the U.S. Department of Defense for clar­i­ty but they did not respond as of publication.

Asked for more infor­ma­tion, Scottie Ellis, a spokesper­son for Kentucky Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear said his office “has no infor­ma­tion on this.”

“And if invest­ments from the Department of Defense — or Trump’s ‘Department of War’ (DOW) — are con­di­tioned on the out­come of an elec­tion, it’s time for the Department of Justice to inves­ti­gate the DOW,” she added. 

Also in his remarks, which last­ed for more than an hour and a half, the pres­i­dent encour­aged vot­ers “to pre­tend I’m on the bal­lot,” say­ing it helps Republicans pick up “a tremen­dous num­ber of seats.” 

Trump used some of his time to talk about oth­er polit­i­cal foes, like crit­i­ciz­ing Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who is run­ning for an open U.S. Senate seat against for­mer Republican National Committee chair­man Michael Whatley in North Carolina. He lat­er called James Talarico, the Texas Democratic Senate can­di­date, a “freak” that should lose to Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton because he’s a “veg­e­tar­i­an,” despite Talarico eat­ing meat this cam­paign cycle. 

“You don’t mind if I talk about oth­er peo­ple,” Trump said to Barr. “Andy is doing so well, I think we can talk about oth­er people.” 

A per­son, who was prompt­ly booed by the crowd and removed by secu­ri­ty, inter­rupt­ed Trump’s remarks short­ly after he took the stage. The pres­i­dent said to take the per­son “back home to mom” and claimed they were a paid protester. 

“They get paid. We have them all over the place… but then they have to suf­fer because they go back home and the moth­er, espe­cial­ly if she’s a Kentucky moth­er, she slaps the hell out of him,” Trump said to cheers in the are­na. “Slaps the hell and says, ‘I vot­ed for that man. Don’t you ever do that again.’”

Kentucky’s most com­pet­i­tive race on the bal­lot this cycle — the Central Kentucky 6^th District, cur­rent­ly held by Barr — was briefly men­tioned by Trump, Barr and Gallrein and, as they encour­aged vot­ers to back Trump-endorsed can­di­date Ralph Alvarado. NKU is about a 90-minute dri­ve from Lexington. 

Alvarado is “in a tight race with a lunatic,” Trump said, refer­ring to Democrat Zach Dembo. 

“He is real­ly a good guy, and I think he’s going to do very well,” Trump said of Alvarado. Winchester, where Trump said the Department of Defense invest­ment would be pend­ing the out­come of the midterms, is in the 6^th Congressional District. 

Alvarado’s cam­paign man­ag­er Andy Westberry pre­vi­ous­ly told the Lantern the can­di­date had con­flict­ing events sched­uled dur­ing the ral­ly as part of the Court Day Festival in Mt. Sterling, “with long-stand­ing com­mit­ments and speak­ing roles at GOP events with sup­port­ers from break­fast until evening.”

Throughout their speech­es, Trump, Barr and Gallrein argued that Democrats have become engulfed by social­ism, like GOP can­di­dates around the coun­try have done this elec­tion cycle. As he has done before, Barr likened his Democratic oppo­nent, for­mer state Rep. Charles Booker, to New York Mayor Zorhan Mamdami. Trump, too, attacked Booker, call­ing him “a com­mu­nist lunatic.” Gallrein said he’d defend­ed America from “social­ists, com­mu­nists, tyrants and ter­ror­ists” in oth­er coun­tries while serv­ing as a Navy SEAL officer.

“I’ve seen first­hand the dev­as­ta­tion that com­mu­nists and social­ist agen­da caused: food and gas short­ages, high prices, long lines as fam­i­lies strug­gle to obtain life’s basic needs but live in utter mis­ery,” Gallrein said. “If they like that so much why don’t those rad­i­cal Democrats move there?” 

Barr blamed high gas prices in the U.S. on Iran and said Iran’s mil­i­tary capa­bil­i­ties have been dimin­ished. The strait was closed ear­li­er this year after U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran. 

“The Ayatollah is dead, and its nuclear infra­struc­ture is under rub­ble,” Barr said. “Thank you, President Trump, for mak­ing America and the world a safer place.” 

Republican Party of Kentucky Chairman Robert Benvenuti was first in the speak­er line­up and encour­aged GOP vot­ers to cast bal­lots in upcom­ing elec­tions and push back against the left, which he said “now tries to con­vince our friends and neigh­bors that not enough has been done to clean up their hand­spun destruc­tion, and in some twist­ed way, they deserve your vote.”

“Folks, that’s bull—-,” he added. 

Trump pre­vi­ous­ly came to Hebron in March to stump for Gallrein against U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie. Gallrein lat­er defeat­ed Massie in the Republican primary. 

What Dems say

While No Kings protests against the Trump admin­is­tra­tion had already been planned across Kentucky on Saturday ahead of the November elec­tion, a few pro­test­ers did make it on cam­pus to oppose Trump. Before are­na doors opened to the pub­lic, a few pro­test­ers held signs near an entrance. One read, “I miss Obama.” 

Kentucky Democrats didn’t give Trump a warm wel­come either. Ahead of the ral­ly on Friday, U.S. Rep. Morgan McGarvey, the state’s lone Democrat in Congress, argued the pres­i­dent should “explain why he has been lying to the American peo­ple and answer to the impact that it’s had on Kentucky.” McGarvey point­ed to ris­ing gas and gro­cery prices and GOP-backed cuts to Medicaid. 

Many Democrats, includ­ing can­di­dates in Kentucky, have echoed McGarvey’s sen­ti­ments on the cam­paign trail this year. Asked if focus­ing on afford­abil­i­ty issues would move vot­ers, McGarvey said Kentuckians are “watch­ing this happen.” 

“It doesn’t mat­ter what politi­cians are say­ing. It’s what peo­ple are see­ing. They are see­ing the gas prices. They are see­ing the gro­cery prices. They are see­ing health­care prices. They’re watch­ing the cor­rup­tion in this admin­is­tra­tion,” McGarvey said, recall­ing reports such as the U.S. accept­ing a plane as a gift from the Qatari government. 

As for the 6^th Congressional District, McGarvey felt good about Dembo’s chances. Asked about Alvarado’s absence, the con­gress­man said “just because some­body doesn’t go to a ral­ly doesn’t mean they can run away from this pres­i­dent and his poli­cies, which they have always supported.” 

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.