Progress Kentucky’s Executive Director Shawn Reilly, who’s the subject of an FBI investigation,met with possible Senate candidate – and current Kentucky Secretary of State – Alison Lundergan Grimes back in 2011. As BuzzFeed reported yesterday:
In Feb. 2011, while she was a Democratic candidate for Secretary Of State, Lundergan Grimes had a meeting with Shawn Reilly, who would later go on to be co-founder of Progress Kentucky. That group has become best known for racially-charged attacks on McConnell’s wife, former Labor Sec. Elaine Chao, and alleged connection to the surreptitious recording of a McConnell strategy session that led toa federal investigation.
Reilly tweeted a picture of the meeting with Lundergan Grimes and endorsed her candidacy in the Democratic primary. “Great meeting w @alisonforsos in Louisville,” he wrote. “I think she will win in may[.] vote alison.”
The Kentucky Secretary Of State’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BuzzFeed, nor did two of Grimes’s political consultants.
In the wake of the McConnell strategy meeting fiasco, which was a coordinated hit by the institutional left, Democrats – who outed the group – have been quick to relegate them to the kids table. Progress Kentucky has raised virtually no money, and was reportedly considered a joke within liberal circles. Democrats also said the group has no influence, but Reilly’s meetings with Grimes and White House officials indicate otherwise.
It seems that the Democrats outed seasoned political operatives, and it’s time Brad Woodhouse, the DNC’s Communications Director, and other Washington Democrats to admit that they know these people. To say otherwise makes you look out of the loop, or abjectly stupid. Dan Riehl aptly noted that it’s increasingly hard to believe that Woodhouse – and the DNC – were unfamiliar with this organization.
MEGYN KELLY: “Do you know this group, Progress Kentucky, Brad?”
BRAD WOODHOUSE: “I don’t.”
KELLY: “You don’t know anything about them?”
WOODHOUSE: “I know the brand of progress organizations, but I don’t know anything about Progress Kentucky.”
KELLY: Do you know Shawn Reilly or Curtis Morrison at all?”
WOODHOUSE: “Uh, no. I’ve never heard of them.”
So, we know the Democrat’s number one Senate target is Mitch McConnell – who is up for re-election. We also already know he’s the target of a coordinated attack. Furthermore, both Shawn Reilly AND Progress Kentucky made national headlines just one month ago – due to a previous misguided attack on McConnell – yet, the guy at the helm of communications of the entire Democrat Party never heard of him???
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