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KENTUCKY’S
KING
HUFFINGTON
08.11.13
N THEIR WAY TO VICTORY, McCONNELL
had shared with Bunning a strategy that he
had long preached to his own campaign staffers. The senator had adopted what he called
his “west of Interstate 65 strategy,” named
for the highway that splits the state from
Louisville in the north down to the Tennessee
border. McConnell believed that his elections
were won or lost west of I-65. The
far western counties were once a
Democratic stronghold, but the territory showed signs that it could be
open to a determined Republican.
“He basically told other parts of
the state they weren’t going to see
him as much from, say, the first
of August till Election Day,” a former McConnell staffer recalls. “He
primarily was going to focus west
of I-65. That’s where he thought
more gains could be made.”
McCracken County, set along the
banks of the Ohio River in Western Kentucky, played a pivotal role
in McConnell’s expanding power
and influence. With its history of
strong African-American leaders
and outspoken union membership,
the county initially opposed him:
When he was first elected to the
Senate in 1984 by a narrow margin, McConnell lost McCracken by
about 4,000 votes. It was a victory
to even get that close.
In his critical reelection fight
against Sloane, however, McConnell
took the county by more than 1,500
votes, and his influence in the region has grown ever since. McConnell now owns the west. Al Cross
credits Paducah, the McCracken
county seat, and the surrounding
area as “the key to his