Hunter Bates
Hunter Bates has been involved in public policy and advocacy for many years and has served as legal counsel and chief of staff to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.
From 1997 through 2002, Bates served as chief legal counsel and then chief of staff to Senator McConnell. He worked with McConnell and other members of the Senate and House on a wide range of issues from appropriations to election law to healthcare to labor law to civil justice reform, including medical malpractice reform. As chief counsel of the Senate Rules Committee from 1999-2000, Bates also advised McConnell on ethics and campaign finance issues.
In addition to serving as McConnell's top adviser and speechwriter, Bates helped draft legislation and served as McConnell's point person for weekly Senate leadership meetings involving the Senate Majority Leader and other top members of the Senate leadership. Bates also drafted op-ed articles with Senator McConnell that were published in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, USA today, Washington Times, Courier-Journal and Lexington Herald-Leader, among others.
He has played a key role in two statewide McConnell senate campaigns, most recently in 2002, where he served as campaign manager helping McConnell win with a record 65% of the vote.
In December of 2003, then-Congressman Ernie Fletcher selected Bates to be his lieutenant governor running mate for the 2003 gubernatorial race. Only weeks before the primary election, a state court judge ruled that Hunter’s service to Kentucky in Washington effectively disqualified him from serving as lieutenant governor until the 2011 election. Rather than go through a protracted legal appeal, Bates chose to step aside.
He is a 1989 graduate of Eastern Kentucky University where he graduated magna cum laude, and a 1994 graduate of Harvard Law School where he was chosen by his classmates to be class marshal and deliver the student commencement address. Bates also served as a law clerk to the Honorable Eugene E. Siler, Jr., on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Bates is an attorney in private practice specializing in litigation and government relations. He is president and General Counsel of The Bates Capitol Group LLC, a public affairs/government relations firm with offices in Washington, DC and Louisville, KY. Some of The Bates Capitol Group’s clients include UPS, Microsoft, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform, EDS, Nortel, SHPS, Appriss, BellSouth, E.ON, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (a trade association of nine auto manufacturers, including Ford, GM, Daimler Chrysler and Toyota), Dell, Keane, Amgen and the American Beverage Association.
In 2004, he served as statewide grassroots chairman for Bush-Cheney in Kentucky and was a delegate to the 2004 Republican National Convention. Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher appointed Bates to the EKU Board of Regents, where he serves as chairman. He also serves on the board of directors of First Southern Bancorp, Baptist Heathcare Systems, and the Center for Technology Enterprise, Inc. (CiTE), which is a nonprofit organization seeking to increase access to and use of technology throughout Kentucky (”ConnectKentucky”).
He also is of counsel with the law firm of Frost Brown Todd, which has offices in Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, and Tennessee.
He is married to Jennifer Chapman Bates, and they have two children, Hunter II and Anna Lane.
Patrick
Jennings
Director of State Affairs
Patrick Jennings is a native of Morgantown, Kentucky in Butler County. He graduated from Emory University with a 3.3 GPA and a double major in History and Political Science. While at Emory, he played varsity men’s basketball all four years, serving as team captain for three of those four years. Patrick also attended University College in Oxford, England where he studied government.
Patrick began his career as a campaign assistant to Congressman Ed Whitfield. He then worked as a Legislative Aide to Senator Mitch McConnell in Washington, DC. Patrick moved back to Kentucky in 1999 to serve as the Director of National Affairs and Political Education for Kentucky Farm Bureau, after eight months in that position, he became the Director of the Public Affairs Division at Kentucky Farm Bureau. Patrick has lobbied four sessions of the Kentucky General Assembly and has lobbied Congress since 1999. He has appeared on C-Span, KET and other government affairs programs. In 2003 he was elected to the board of directors of the Young Political Leaders of Kentucky.
Lesley Elliott
Director of Federal Affairs
Lesley Elliott is a Lexington, KY native who brings five years of Capitol Hill experience to the Bates Capitol Group. Lesley graduated from Vanderbilt University with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science.
Lesley spent three years as Deputy Chief of Staff in the Office of the Secretary of the Senate and two years as Legislative Aide in the Office of Senator Mitch McConnell handling Education, Health and Social Security issues.
Active in the community, Lesley’s main
charitable activity centers on her role as a key organizer for Taste of
the South where she serves as Chairman of the Kentucky Committee. This
501(c)3 organization dedicated to raising money for deserving charities
boasts a Congressional Host Committee comprised of the members of the
congressional delegations for 13 southern states. Additionally, she is
active in the Kentucky Society of Washington.