Kentucky Primary Pits Mitch McConnell Against Tea Party Rival

A slew of primary elections are taking place Tuesday, including a GOP brawl in the Bluegrass State.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is facing off against tea partier Matt Bevin in a Republican primary tonight.

For more information on primaries around the nation, read this piece from HuffPost's Amanda Terkel and Samantha Lachman.

Below, more from the AP on the race in Kentucky:

There's probably no one tea party conservatives would rather knock off than Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader who they view as too ready to compromise with Democrats. Their hopes were once high for Matt Bevin, a businessman making his first run for office.

Bevin has struggled with everything from his official biography to an appearance at a cockfighting rally, for which he apologized, but has mostly suffered in the face of withering attacks from McConnell's well-funded political machine.

McConnell positions himself as a solid conservative who makes tough decisions and gives Kentuckians a powerful voice in Washington. If he wins the nomination Tuesday — it will stun Republicans everywhere if he doesn't — his campaign will officially turn its attention to likely Democratic nominee Alison Lundergan Grimes, Kentucky's secretary of state. The two have been sparring for months.