Joshua Lindsey/Daily News Cheri Werner, of Bowling Green, applauds as U.S. Senate candidate Matt Bevin, of Louisville, speaks Thursday, July 25, 2013 at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Ky.

Republican challenger to Sen. Mitch McConnell visited Bowling Green on Thursday, arguing that the Senate minority leader has spent too long in Washington, D.C.

Matt Bevin, a Louisville businessman, spoke at the National Corvette Museum a day after officially announcing his candidacy in Frankfort. The stop in Bowling Green was one of several campaign stops across the state.

McConnell is up for re-election in 2014. Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, a Democrat, has also announced her candidacy for the seat.

Bevin acknowledged during his speech that defeating McConnell would be an uphill battle, but said it is important for his party to meet that challenge.

Standing at a podium with his wife and nine children behind him, Bevin told his audience that McConnell’s record in the Senate indicates he isn’t in touch with the state.

“He’s lost touch with our state, he’s lost touch with our people, and he’s lost touch with our values,” Bevin said.

He said there is a need for a permanent end to earmark spending and big government spending in general.

“Mitch McConnell has been willing to spend money that we don’t have no matter who the president is,” Bevin said.

He pointed to the 2008 bank bailout as an example of excessive spending during McConnell’s time in office.

The problem of overspending is a bi-partisan problem, Bevin said.

If elected to the Senate, Bevin said he wouldn’t support any debt ceiling increases and wouldn’t support increases of any kind until a deal was put into place to balance the budget within 10 years.

According to the Associated Press, McConnell campaign manager Jesse Benton has dismissed Bevin’s criticism.

“Mitch McConnell is Kentucky’s greatest advocate, and he fights his heart out for our commonwealth every day,” Benton said. “Mitch is working hard to bring all Kentuckians – Republicans, tea partiers, independents and conservative Democrats – together to stand against the liberal Obama agenda in Washington.”

Jenean Hampton, chairwoman of the Bowling Green Southern Kentucky Tea Party, said she was a representative of the Bowling Green Tea Party group in a united Kentucky Tea Party group that vetted potential challengers to McConnell.

“We were really impressed with Matt’s approach … basically to his life,” she said.

Bevin’s experience as an entrepreneur, his experience creating jobs and his commitment to remaining as debt-free as possible were impressive for the group, Hampton said.

“He has an outstanding chance of winning this because I think going with the status quo clearly has gotten us where we are, and we need to get people in Washington who can make effective change for the better,” she said.

Another six-year term for Mitch McConnell would be a waste, Hampton said.

“We just don’t have the time to go backwards,” she said.

Hampton said she hopes Bevin, if elected, will join senators such as Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Bowling Green, in holding the line against President Barack Obama’s policies.

Hunter Peay, 18, of Morgantown, said he came out to the campaign stop because he’s not a fan of Mitch McConnell and was interested in hearing from anyone willing to challenge him.

“I feel like he is a career politician, and I really don’t like how he tries to strong-arm the Republican Party of Kentucky,” he said.

He disliked McConnell’s support of Trey Grayson in the 2010 Senate primary when he ran against Paul, Peay said.

Though a new senator from Kentucky might have less influence than McConnell does as minority leader, Peay said that influence isn’t a priority for him.

“I’d rather have somebody with less influence who’s voting and doing the right things than someone who is influencing and pushing things that are not good for this country,” he said.

Peay researched Bevin before coming to the event, and said he liked that the candidate seems to lean toward conservative and libertarian beliefs, which falls in line with Peay’s beliefs. However, he wanted to hear the candidate speak before deciding whether or not to support him.

“I’m coming here today as undecided,” he said.

– Katie Brandenburg covers government for the Bowling Green Daily News. Follow her at twitter.com/BGDNgovtbeat or visit bgdailynews.com.