A few House members dispute a colleague's endorsement claim in a tough Senate race

Rep. Andy Barr, locked in an already contentious 2026 Republican Senate primary in Kentucky, projected strength this week by announcing endorsements from more than 100 of his House colleagues

Rep. Andy Barr, locked in an already contentious 2026 Republican Senate primary in Kentucky, projected strength this week by announcing endorsements from more than 100 of his House colleagues.

But when they were reached Thursday by NBC News, spokespeople for two of those members said they were declining to endorse in the race. Another member on the list said he wasn’t, at that moment, endorsing Barr — though he changed his tune hours later, offering his backing.

Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, is focused solely on his campaign for governor and “is not endorsing in the Kentucky Senate race,” a spokesperson told NBC News. Rep. Tony Wied, R-Wis., hasn’t endorsed Barr, said an adviser, who also noted that the Barr campaign initially misspelled Wied’s last name in the news release proclaiming his support.

And Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said in an interview Thursday afternoon that his endorsements are typically accompanied by formal letters — one of which, he emphasized, he hadn’t yet written for Barr.

Barr’s including Issa on his list of House endorsers was “probably not smart,” Issa told NBC News. “He leaned a little ahead of his skis on this.”