Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Barr speaks to media after delivering a speech announcing his candidacy for U.S. Senate in Richmond, April 22, 2025. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Kevin Nance)
FRANKFORT, Ky. – A big reason why Congressman Andy Barr swamped former Attorney General Daniel Cameron in the first phase of fundraising as each seeks the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate is that Barr got a windfall of contributions from traditional political action committees —particularly from bank PACs.
The numbers can be found on Line 11(c) of the reports Barr and Cameron filed recently with the Federal Election Commission detailing their contributions between Jan. 1 and March 31.
That line on the Andy Barr for Senate report shows $733,000 in contributions from PACs.
The same line on the Cameron for Senate report shows $1,000.
Barr’s PAC windfall represents 40 percent of the $1,853,000 in total receipts he reported for the three-month period. Cameron reported total receipts of $508,000 for the period.
Barr’s lead in fundraising is actually much larger because — in addition to the money raised in the first quarter — he rolled over a balance of about $3.7 million from his House campaign committee to the new committee for the Senate. Barr’s Senate campaign reported having more than $5.3 million on hand at this start of this month while Cameron’s report shows it had $455,000 on hand on April 1.
Barr and Cameron are seeking the Republican Party nomination to succeed Sen. Mitch McConnell who announced in February that he would not seek reelection in 2026. Others may join the race. The Lexington Herald-Leader reported last week that some Republican insiders are saying Scott Jennings, a political consultant best known as a pro-Donald Trump commentator on CNN, is considering getting in the race. And others might get in, including wealthy Lexington businessman Nate Morris.
Barr may need more campaign money than Cameron, who released a poll earlier this month showing he enjoyed a strong lead over Barr — a lead political experts attributed to his higher statewide name recognition that resulted from his 2019 election as attorney general, his four years serving as attorney general, and his 2023 campaign for governor which he lost to incumbent Democrat Andy Beshear.
Daniel Cameron stood by family and other Republican candidates for statewide office at his last campaign stop in Elizabethtown, Nov. 6, 2023. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer)
Barr has won seven consecutive elections as U.S. representative but his name is not well known outside central Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District.
Barr’s strong support from traditional PACs is the result of his years in the House, particularly now as a member of the majority party while holding important committee assignments.
Stephen Voss, an associate professor of political science at the University of Kentucky who specializes in Kentucky politics, said most experienced members of Congress, regardless of political affiliation, can expect a steady flow of donations from traditional PACs. “Andy Barr has been influential in the banking and finance sector for years now, and PACs tend to reward longterm relationships,” Voss said.
Traditional PACs — organizations representing corporations, associations, labor unions and other groups —are limited by law to giving no more than $5,000 per election. The limit is effectively $10,000 because a PAC can give $5,000 designated to a candidate’s primary election, and $5,000 designated to the general election.
Barr is a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee and chairs its Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy Subcommittee. He also serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
The website of OpenSecrets, a non-profit organization that tracks and analyzes political contributions, shows that in the past four years Barr’s campaign committee has gotten the largest share of its contributions from the “securities and investment” sector of the economy and the second largest share from “commercial banks.”
PACs of many corporations and associations within those sectors also gave generously to Barr in the first three months of this year. Kentucky Lantern’s review of Barr’s recent report shows that 17 PACs of banks or financial services associations gave the maximum $10,000 during the period.
Those are the PACs of: American Bankers Assn.; American Financial Services Assn.; Ally Financial Inc.; Barclays Group US Inc.; Fifth Third Bancorp; Financial Services Institute; Goldman Sachs Group Inc.; Investment Company Institute; JPMorgan Chase & Co.; Managed Funds Assn.; Nomura Holding America Inc.; PNC Financial Services Group; Securities Industry and Financial Markets Assn.; Truist Financial Corp.; UBS Americas Inc.; U.S. Bancorp; and United Wholesale Mortgage.
Many other PACs of banks and financial institutions gave smaller amounts. But Barr got lots of contributions from PACs outside the banking sector during the period.
Here are the other PACs listed as donating $10,000 to Barr during the first quarter:
American Institute of CPAs
American Property Casualty Insurance Assn.
Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers
Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America Inc.
KPMG Partners/Principals and Employees
Marathon Petroleum Employees
National Beer Wholesalers
Many other PACs gave smaller amounts. Barr’s Congressional office referred questions from Kentucky Lantern to his Senate campaign committee, which did not return an email and a phone message. Cameron’s FEC report lists only one PAC contribution: $1,000 from an obscure political group called Red State PAC, of Nashville.
Guthrie got more PAC money than Barr
Kentucky’s 2nd District Congressman Brett Guthrie, a Republican from Bowling Green who apparently has no current aspirations for higher office, reported getting hundreds of PAC contributions to his campaign committee in the first quarter of 2025 totaling $826,500.
U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie of Kentucky, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, talks with reporters after a meeting of the House Republican Conference in the U.S. Capitol Feb, 5. 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
The $826,500 represented 72% of all contributions during the period to Guthrie, who last December was named chairman of the powerful House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Guthrie first won election to the U.S. House in a close election in 2008. Since then he has never seriously been threatened. Last November he won reelection with 73.1% of the vote.
And over time his campaign fund has become less of committee to raise and spend money for his reelection expenses and more of a clearing house that collects contributions from traditional PACs and gives most of it to the Republican National Congressional Committee.
FEC records show that in the 2023-24 campaign cycle it took in $2.4 million from traditional PACs – 74 percent of its total contributions. FEC records also show that in the same period it gave $3.1 million to the NRCC – 64 percent of its total spending.
McConnell Money Machine winding down
U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell’s well-oiled fundraising machine is beginning to shut down. Kentucky’s senior senator announced on Feb. 20 he would not seek reelection. And his campaign committee reported to the FEC last week that it stopped online fundraising and will refund contributions designated for the 2026 general election as required by law.
After those refunds the McConnell for Senate Committee is expected to still have a balance of well over $7 million.
The law prevents retiring senators and representatives from keeping that money or paying for personal expenses. But McConnell has other options, primarily donating the money to political committees or to charities.
McConnell Senate Committee launched in the early 1980s an underdog’s effort to unseat an incumbent Democrat and went on – FEC records show – to raise more than $150 million that financed seven winning elections to the U.S. Senate.
U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell speaks to reporters last year at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
The committee was the heart and the origin of McConnell’s fundraising machine which – once McConnell secured his seat in the U.S. Senate – also took on the role of raising hundreds of millions of additional dollars (through the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the super PAC Senate Leadership Fund) with the goal of gaining and retaining Republican control of the U.S. Senate.
McConnell likes “The Price of Power”
Among the relatively few spending items listed in McConnell for Senate’s recent report is $4,467.37 it paid on Feb. 26 to the publishing house Simon & Schuster, of New York, for books.
Last fall Simon & Schuster published “The Price of Power, How Mitch McConnell Mastered the Senate, Changed America and Lost His Party” by veteran journalist Michael Tackett. (The book was favorably reviewed in Kentucky Lantern by Kentucky journalist Al Cross.)Kentucky Lantern confirmed the payment was for copies of “The Price of Power.”
The $4,467.37 payment would buy about 130 copies of the book at its list price.
‘Tis The Season
It’s that time of year when political committees of politicians include big payments to Churchill Downs.
Hal Rogers for Congress reported three payments to Churchill in February and March totaling $95,979. His report says the payments were for ‘facility rental.”
Friends of Andy Barr, a Barr committee that collects contributions for several Barr committees, reported paying $60,450 to Churchill. It also says the purpose of the disbursement was for “facility rental.”
Rand Paul for Senate paid $40,026 in February to Churchill for “event tickets.”
No special trips for Sen. Paul, but …
Kentucky Lantern has reported that Sen. Paul’s campaign committee spent $50,000 last summer for a fundraising trip to Scandinavia’s finest hotels and restaurants, and it spent $44,240 for a fundraising stay at Pendry Park City, a luxury ski resort in Utah.
Paul’s campaign fund reported no travel expenses as large or unusual as those during the first three months of this year. However, it did include a couple additional expenses apparently related to last winter’s ski trip: $1,656 paid to Snowbound Transportation, of Park City, and $2,000 to Diego Zapata, a private chef and caterer from Salt Lake City.
The Paul campaign also reported paying $2,879 in March to The Breakers, a resort in Palm Beach, Florida. That was apparently to attend the annual National Republican Senatorial Committee’s winter meeting – a trip Paul takes at his campaign’s expense each year.
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