GOP congressman ready to step up if unpopular Kentucky governor bails on re-election campaign

GOP Rep. James Comer

Kentucky Republicans are openly wondering if Gov. Matt Bevin will abandon his re-election campaign ahead of the Jan. 29 filing deadline, and Rep. James Comer is making it very clear he wants to run if there’s an opening.

Comer said that he wouldn’t run in a primary against Bevin, but he’d have “significant interest in the race” if Bevin bailed. Comer also indicated that he wouldn’t wait long if Bevin did retire, noting that it’s easy to get on the ballot and saying that he’s already talked to potential running mates. If Comer ran, he wouldn’t need to give up his safely red western Kentucky House seat unless he won in November.

Comer, who was state agriculture commissioner at the time, faced Bevin in the 2015 primary, a contest Bevin won by all of 83 votes. Comer says the two have not spoken since then, and the congressman has publicly criticized Bevin during his stint as governor.

Bevin is very unpopular, and Team Red would probably benefit if Comer was the GOP nominee instead of him. However, Comer’s 2015 bid for governor was overshadowed by accusations from an ex-girlfriend who said that, over two decades ago when they were in college, Comer had physically and emotionally abused her and took her to get an abortion. Her former roommates confirmed parts of her story, but Comer denied everything and in turn accused another primary rival, Hal Heiner, of paying her to lie. The story never came up during Comer’s successful House bid the following year, but it likely will resurface if he runs for governor again.