Kentucky businessman Nate Morris launched his Senate bid on Thursday in an effort to replace the state’s senior lawmaker, Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who said he would not seek reelection earlier this year.

Morris announced his bid on Donald Trump Jr.’s podcast, “Triggered with Don Jr.,” telling the president’s oldest son he wanted to help “take out the trash” in Washington.

“I think it’s time to take out the trash in Washington, D.C., and bring someone new, somebody from the outside, somebody that’s not a career politician and most importantly, someone that’s only beholden to the people, not to McConnell cronies and the people that have been occupying this seat through McConnell over the last 40 years,” he said on the Thursday episode.

Morris’s comments come after months of criticism for McConnell, who has voted against key policies for the Trump agenda while painting himself as a firebrand “America First candidate.”

However, his opponents have attempted to crack the image.

“Nate is the only candidate who didn’t support Donald Trump in the 2024 primary — he gave $5,000 to Nikki Haley, championed radical DEI policies, used diversity quotas for hiring, and even hired Obama and Kamala’s campaign manager to help run his company,” Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) said in a statement, according to the Louisville Courier Journal. 

“Nate Morris is pretending to be MAGA now, but he can’t run from all the liberal trash in his past.”

Morris is currently slated to run against Barr and former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron in the GOP primary, while Democratic state Rep. Pamela Stevenson has also announced a bid for the senate seat.

The state’s primaries are set to kick off on May 19, 2026.