Tea Party group lines up McConnell and Paul for Aug. 21 rally against health care law

Both of Kentucky’s Republican U.S. Senators will headline a rally against the U.S. Affordable Care Act at the state capitol in Frankfort on Aug. 21.

The rally, organized by the Louisville Tea Party, will start on the capitol grounds at 11:30 and will feature both Republcan U.S. Sens. Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul, said David Adams, the political consultant and blogger who is helping coordinate outreach for the event.

Communications directors for McConnell and Paul confirmed to Pure Politics that the senator plans to attend.

Adams said he expected Paul and McConnell to not only speak out against the law, which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld last month, but also to lay out “a pathway out of the current mess.”

The rally will happen less than a week before Republicans convene in Tampa for that party’s national convention, where the health care law — nicknamed Obamacare — figures to be a major theme.

It also is expected to come up in Kentucky elections. Republican candidate in the 6th congressional district, Andy Barr, is expected to attend the rally, as are many Republican candidates for the state House, Adams said.

Republican House candidates have begun using the Affordable Care Act’s effect on adding to the Medicaid rolls as a campaign issue, as Al Cross noted in his Sunday column in the Courier-Journal.

Democratic House Speaker Greg Stumbo has said he doesn’t believe that issue makes any more Democratic seats vulnerable in the fall election because most races are fought over personalities and local issues.