WASHINGTON—The man whom longtime former Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell’s mentee Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY) hired to run his U.S. Senate campaign to replace the outgoing McConnell in Kentucky this year is a raging Never Trumper with a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS).
Barr’s campaign manager, Blake Gober, ascended to his current position leading Barr’s campaign back in January of this year. On Jan. 12, 2026, Politico reported that Gober would be taking the reins of Barr’s U.S. Senate campaign, meaning the congressman was putting his entire political future in Gober’s hands. Gober himself shared the news on his account on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter:
Normally, whom candidates hire on their campaigns and whom they employ as consultants is mundane and beyond the specific announcement it would usually be not newsworthy. But it’s clear that Gober is someone with a longtime, deep-seated hatred of President Donald Trump — something it’s unclear if Barr even knew before he hired Gober and gave him this major position. It would have been easy to figure out with the slightest bit of research though, so either Barr himself knew everything that follows and was okay with it all — or he was negligent in his vetting of an extremely important hire — either of which arguably appear disqualifying for a U.S. Senate candidate. All of the posts in question still remain on Gober’s public profile on which he identifies himself as Barr’s campaign manager.
On Jan. 6, 2021, for instance, Gober revealed he never voted for Donald Trump — not in the 2016 primary or general election, and not in the 2020 primary or general election.
“I am proud that I have never voted for Donald Trump,” Gober posted on X just after 3 p.m. ET on Jan. 6, 2021, during the riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Gober later revealed that in 2016, when Trump faced Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton in the general election, he instead wrote in former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush when he voted that year. Then, in 2020, when Trump faced then former Vice President and now former President Joe Biden in the general election, Gober says he voted third party. He would not vote for Trump until Nov. 5, 2024, the general election where Trump faced then-Vice President Kamala Harris in his comeback bid:
He made it clear, however, repeatedly during the 2024 primaries that he would never vote for Trump.
In a post from the night before the 2022 midterm elections on Nov. 7, 2022, for instance, he posted: “I can’t wait for Ron DeSantis to beat Trump in the GOP Primary!”
A week or so later, when Trump announced he was running again for president, he made clear he was #NeverTrump from the beginning of Trump’s first candidacy and again posted that he was #NeverTrump still then. This post remains public:
In November 2023, when the other candidates sans Trump were debating, Gober made clear he supported Nikki Haley for president. “Vote for Nikki!” he wrote in one post replying to someone worrying about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s debate performance. When that person said that she could not vote for Haley in a general election, Gober replied: “Trump and Vivek are those 2 for me,” meaning if either Trump or businessman Vivek Ramaswamy won the 2024 nomination he would sit out the general election.
On Nov. 12, 2023, Gober posted that Trump was “the weakest candidate” remaining in the race and that Haley was “clearly the best candidate based on polling and based on leadership.”
Later, in December 2023, in another post, Gober claimed that Trump “can’t win in November but Nikki can.”
In September 2023, Gober wrote that Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, and “Cheney” — he did not specify which Cheney, former Vice President Dick Cheney or former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) — “are/were Conservative” and that Trump is not conservative:
In October 2023, Gober claimed that Bush and Cheney were better than Trump in every respect:
In a March 2023 post, Gober wrote that “no one more mature or experienced will work for Trump. All of us want Trump to go away forever.” He added at the end of the post: “#MakeTheRepublicanPartyRepublicanAgain.”
In another post from September 2023, Gober blamed Trump for mask mandates and shutdowns in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic:
During a 2024 GOP presidential primary debate in August 2023, Gober said that Trump was “nothing but a puppet for Putin.”
In two posts on X in October 2023, Gober called Trump a “loser” who flipped Georgia from red to blue and called Trump the “Divider-in-Chief.”
In another post from November 2023, Gober called Trump “the reason the GOP has lost” and added, “He is a stain on our party and country.”
In September 2023 during a GOP debate, Gober again argued Trump is “not fit to be President of the United States again.”
Back in Trump’s first term, Gober even took a shot at this journalist in response to a 2017 story “sleeper cell” leakers in the administration, writing: “Matt Boyle is a worthless excuse for a human being.”
In 2022, he attacked Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA as a “grifter”:
Kirk, of course, gave Barr’s opponent Nate Morris what would be his final endorsement ever before he was assassinated last year. Kirk even went to Kentucky to help Morris launch his campaign last summer.
In 2015, when he was supporting Jeb Bush for president, Gober argued that Jeb Bush was the only Republican running who was “consistent on Immigration.”
Barr’s campaign in response to an inquiry for this story did not answer any questions about the substance of the story, simply providing a factually inaccurate statement claiming that Morris backed Haley for president — which he did not.
“Andy Barr was the Chairman of Trump’s 2024 primary campaign in Kentucky and was the first to endorse him,” the Barr for Senate campaign said in a statement. “Meanwhile, Nate Morris supported Nikki Haley, even maxing out to her PAC.”
Morris did not actually support Haley for president. As Breitbart News reported in the past:
Morris’s supposed donation to Nikki Haley was actually made to an outside group one month after Haley went on television and promised the world she would not run against Trump in 2024. What’s more, Morris’s wife previously told the Wall Street Journal that the donation was not about support for Haley, but so she could get a signed letter from Haley for her dying uncle who resided in South Carolina. Around the time of the dinner, she also paid for a cameo video from Donald Trump Jr. for her uncle as well.
But the fact of the matter is that Barr’s campaign has not answered any questions about Gober’s Never Trump movement allegiance. Questions that Breitbart News sent to Barr’s campaign that the Barr campaign refused to answer include:
- Does Mr. Gober stand by all his criticisms of President Trump?
- Does Mr. Gober still believe Nikki Haley was a superior candidate to President Trump in 2024?
- Does Mr. Gober still consider himself #NeverTrump?
- Does Mr. Gober still believe that George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, Mitt Romney, and Paul Ryan were conservative and that Trump is not?
- Does Mr. Gober still believe Jeb Bush was better on immigration than President Trump?
- Does the Barr for Senate campaign staff all agree with Mr. Gober’s many criticisms of President Trump?
- Is the Barr for Senate campaign a part of the #NeverTrump movement that Mr. Gober pledged allegiance to?
- Any other broad comments on this matter from the campaign?
The Barr campaign also formally refused to provide answers from Barr himself to several questions sent to the congressman directly, including on whether he vetted Gober before hiring him or not — and whether Barr has other Never Trumpers working for him underneath Gober in either his campaign or his U.S. House office.
Barr himself has not answered these specific questions from Breitbart News sent to him hours before publication of this story:
- Did you vet Blake Gober before you hired him?
- Were you aware of all these Never Trump declarations from the man you named campaign manager when you hired him? If so, why did you do so? If not, why should voters trust you to represent them in the U.S. Senate if you cannot vet your own staff?
- Do you agree with Mr. Gober’s various pledges to oppose President Trump at every turn for years on end?
- Are there other people on your campaign staff or in your office staff who have pledged allegiance to the #NeverTrump movement? If so, who? If not, how do you know that? What processes have you conducted to vet the others?
- Have you informed President Trump about these various comments from your campaign manager or are you hiding this information from the president?
It is unclear what impact these bombshell revelations about Barr and his hiring practices will have on the campaign in Kentucky, but the race by most accounts is a close one between Barr, Morris, and Daniel Cameron. All three are battling it out in the final weeks ahead of the mid-May primary.
