page_title: Matt Bevin
section_title: Accusations against Comer
hierarchical_section_title: Matt Bevin / Political campaigns / 2015 gubernatorial primary / Accusations against Comer
caption_attribution_description: Agriculture Commissioner James Comer speaking at the 2014 Boone County Republican Party Christmas Gala at the Receptions Banquet Center in Erlanger, Kentucky. Please attribute to Gage Skidmore if used elsewhere.
context_page_description: Matthew Griswold Bevin is an American businessman and politician who served as the 62nd Governor of Kentucky, from 2015 to 2019. He was the third Republican elected Kentucky governor since World War II, after Ernie Fletcher and Louie Nunn.
  Born in Denver, Colorado, and raised in Shelburne, New Hampshire, Bevin earned a bachelor's degree at Washington and Lee University in 1989, then served four years of active duty in the U.S. Army, attaining the rank of captain. He became wealthy in the investment business and moved to Louisville, Kentucky, in 1999. He was president of Bevin Brothers Manufacturing Company, one of the last remaining American bell foundries.
  In 2013, Bevin announced he would challenge Kentucky's senior U.S. Senator, then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, in the 2014 Republican primary. Although Bevin gained the support of various groups aligned with the Tea Party Movement, McConnell attacked him repeatedly for inconsistencies in his public statements and policy positions and defeated him by almost 25 percentage points.
context_section_description: Less than three weeks before the primary, Comer's former girlfriend told The Courier-Journal in a letter that Comer had abused her physically and mentally in 1991 and that he had accompanied her to an abortion clinic. Other newspapers, including the Lexington Herald-Leader, which cited the Courier-Journal, then reported the allegations. The Lexington Herald-Leader had reported earlier that the Lexington-area blogger who had been publishing stories about the allegations for months had been in contact with the husband of Heiner's running mate, K. C. Crosbie.
  Heiner apologized for any role members of his campaign may have had in perpetuating the accusations against Comer, but the story touched off a feud between Heiner and Comer that some analysts predicted would benefit Bevin. Bevin declared that Heiner's alleged connection to the Comer accusations had "disqualified [Heiner] from being the GOP nominee for governor". During a debate featuring all four Republican candidates on Kentucky Sports Radio, Bevin said, "I don't know if [Heiner's] behind the Comer story, but I'm telling you his people have been pushing this for a long time. And Hal himself has personally told me months and months ago before I even got in this race, that he knew things, not had heard things, that he knew things based on conversations that his people had had about Jamie Comer." Bevin also released an ad depicting Comer and Heiner as children in a food fight, with the narrator promising that Bevin would bring "grown up leadership" to the governor's race.
  The first opinion poll conducted after the allegations against Comer showed Bevin leading the race with 27% support to Heiner's 26%, Comer's 25%, and Scott's 8%, with 14% still undecided.
  Lowell Reese, of Kentucky Roll Call, reported on September 28, 2015, that the Comer campaign had leaked to the Herald-Leader emails showing that the husband of Crosbie had been in contact with the blogger. By doing so, the campaign was able to deny the allegations of abuse that had circulated for months in Frankfort, the state capital, and put Heiner's campaign on the defensive.
caption: James Comer lost support in the race due to accusations by a former girlfriend.
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