Now, while the state lawmaking session is hitting a new stride, so is the campaign trail for candidates and the closely watched U.S.

Senate race here in Kentucky.

Some of the high profile Republican contenders are dominating the TV airwaves with pro-Trump messages.

Last Friday, I talked with our political commentators, Trey Grayson and Bob Babich, about the candidates messaging and the quest to land a presidential endorsement.

This is part of our election 2026 coverage.

Bob Savage, Trey Grayson, thanks for being back for part two from our continuation discussion on Friday.

Bob, I'll start with you.

The U.S.

Senate race, there are some interesting ads.

And the Republican primary, particularly coming from Andy Barr and Nate Morris.

What strikes you about the messages that these candidates in particular are sending at this juncture?

Well, we get mad about ads and often critique ads, but they are definitely designed from knowing the audience and knowing who you have to appeal to with a, say, a 40% turnout on a primary and know who that's going to be in large measure.

You can see the voting history.

That's who you're talking to.

And if you pulled them and know how they feel, then you can gear an ad to what matters most to them.

The war set is very effective and will appeal to a lot of voters who will be primary voters on May 19th.

And Trey can definitely have more to that.

The bar is more inflammatory, and more hard hitting.

It's not a sin.

To be white.

It's not against the law to be male.

He's just caught up a bit in the polls and maybe got ahead in the polls for what we've seen lately.

Still a chunk of undecided voters.

Morris is a guy who has to gain.

Cameron is the candidate who has to hang on.

And ladies and gentlemen.

Let.

Us speak truth.

That's that's where we are.

I think we're going to turn a corner here shortly and see these ads and others like them.

All the time from now on, all of March, all of April, right to the end.

And we know that Daniel Cameron just does not have the money to be on television.

So is that pushing him even further behind, because you were getting so much from a bar and from Morris.

Right now.

But what he what he can hope to benefit from that he has this level of support and that as he loses support, that support splits between the two and he's able to hang on.

I think we've talked about this in the past like a scenario where he wins as he gets 40 to 30 5 to 40% of the vote, and there's other to kind of split the rest.

And and well, he doesn't have a majority.

He wins.

That's probably his winning scenario.

The Morris ad is striking to me.

As Bob mentioned, I think it's an effective ad.

We talked a lot about desire for all these candidates to get Trump's endorsement and that they're playing in some respects, two different races.

There's the primary one, the president, and then there's everybody else.

Morris ad reminds us there's another really popular figure, maybe more popular in the Republican Party, which is Charlie Kirk.

Nate Morris, we're behind you.

And I remember when Morris announced his candidacy, Kirk came to Kentucky.

They had an event, I think it was in Hardin County.

And but Kirk was tragically assassinated.

And I remember thinking, you know, in the wake of that, I was like, oh, it's kind of bad luck for Nate Morris because Kirk can't come back and do get out the vote rallies and things like that.

Or this ad has is Kirk's video talking about Nate Morris and his voice.

And Kirk is probably, as I said, maybe more popular than Trump.

It's not clear that he has the same electoral chops that I, Clark Kirk endorsement delivers the way a Trump endorsement.

But I've seen this in heavy rotation even in Northern Kentucky.

I've got my, we're taping this in the Olympics.

We're just wrapping up.

So I've got my red, white and blue and even in Northern Kentucky.

So on broadcast television in Cincinnati, Morris is running that ad.

And so people are being introduced to Morris as Charlie Kirk's candidate, who's this outsider business guy that's, I thought, of an effective or potentially effective message for him all along.

And we're just seeing this in heavy, heavy rotation.

So it'll be interesting to see the next time we get some polling.

Did that work to get him back up in the, you know, closer to Barr in the camera.

And I think it will make a big difference.

And Donald Trump Jr is in the ad as much.

And so is.

He a second to the late Trump Pakenham.

Anyway yeah it's a subtle you know that subtle right.

You get the president's son namesake saying you know that's a really good point Nate.

And so we'll see.

But I just thought it was a great ad, and I think it's better strategy than maybe what he was doing at the beginning with which was focusing more on McConnell and less on himself.

And some of the other, support that he has.

The week that we were talking, the debate schedule that they I think they're kind of agreeing on or seems to be gelling or at least forming by one candidate, Daniel Cameron, seemed to come out front and says this is what he's agreeing to do, and then we'll see how the other two kind of match up.

How does this usually work?

Do the campaigns talk to each other about what they will agree and how many of they will agree to do and which ones?

Often.

Well, what I did is we decided here's what we wanted to do.

We went first and that's shaped.

Then, the other candidate's response, I mean, I think there's a desire to do a few debates around the state.

Hopefully they're going to come here and you'll have a conversation.

I don't think we call that a debate.

That's an appearance.

Appearance.

Okay.

You take but yeah, no, they don't really talk much.

And usually there's some strategy, and that doesn't require cooperation.

So what's the liability for an Andy Barr or even a Nate Morris to.

Come on, let's say a state wide television network.

What did they risk or what could they gain?

Same as with most debates.

You can't make mistakes and you've got to get across, a measure of superiority that appeals to primary voters, not to everybody who watches, but to that very important group, that votes May 19th.

And knowing what moves them and how to appeal to them, that's what people repeat themselves in debates and often mentioned themes and key goals over and over again.

Regardless of the question that's asked.

We get bored with that.

We get mad about that.

But there's a meanings to that.

They're talking maybe not to us, maybe not to most people, but to the people they need to have on Election day.

Yeah.

It also creates some some buzz, you know, some of it is the audience is watching.

You've got prospective voters and maybe open minded voters, but you also have people who comment on politics and then who also like us, but then also people who are just political.

The local elected official might watch it, and maybe that person already has an endorsement in mind, but that but she could say, you know, I watch that debate and, you know, Barr was great, camera was great, Morris was great or whatever.

And so you have that aspect.

It's because it's less there's the people who watch it, but then there's how the the coverage of the debate gets out there.

Good.

Thanks to no thank you guys.

Thank you.