Mitch McConnell's Kentucky: "A Place Where Ideals Go To Die"

Kentucky is a very red state, more so in national politics than local politics. Trump beat Hillary there 1,202,971 (62.5%) to 628,854 (32.7%), one of Trump's best performances anywhere. He lost only two counties (out of Kentucky's 120)-- Jefferson (Louisville in the 3rd congressional district) and Fayette (Lexington in the 6th congressional district). The state's PVI is a daunting R+15.

In 2018, Amy McGrath won a tough Democratic primary in the 6th district and took on Republican incumbent Andy Barr. The PVI of the 6th is R+9. McGrath did extremely well... for a Democrat. In 2014 Barr won with 60% of the vote and in 2016 with 61%. McGrath held him down to 51%. She took Fayette County in a landslide and won Franklin County as well. But in the 17 smaller more rural counties, Barr wracked up gigantic margins.

This morning, as expected, McGrath announced her candidacy for McConnell's Senate seat. People wondered how she can expect to win statewide when she couldn't win in one of the least Republican areas of the state. McConnell is the answer. The the single most hated senator-- by his state's voters-- of any of the 100 U.S. senators. Kentucky voters say they want him out. But they always say that... and he always wins reelection anyway.

She will play up her status as a Marine fighter pilot, in contrast to his scary military record, which lasted a few weeks when he was discharged for fondling the privates of a private, something that was covered up but has been circulating beyond the Louisville "fruit loop" for decades.

Can Trump protect McConnell's reelection bid?

Yesterday, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported that McGrath would make her case by contrasting herself with McConnell. McGrath: "Everything that’s wrong in Washington had to start someplace. How did it come to this, that even within our own families, we can’t talk to each other about the leaders of our country anymore without anger and blame? Well it started with this man, who was elected a lifetime ago and who has, bit by bit, year by year, turned Washington into something we all despise."

With the announcement, McGrath is shrugging off a three-point loss in her first attempt to obtain political office. She becomes the first major Democrat in 2020 to challenge the architect of Kentucky’s modern Republican Party. While Kentucky Sports Radio host Matt Jones and House Minority Floor Leader Rocky Adkins have indicated they are considering running, McGrath’s wide fundraising network-- she raised more than $8.6 million against Barr-- and a courtship by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee make her a formidable opponent in a primary.

The race will be an uphill battle for any Democrat. While McConnell has long had low approval ratings in the state, he’s bulldozed his opponents and beat Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes by 15 points in 2014. His political machine will likely be aided by President Donald Trump’s name at the top of the ticket in 2020. Trump won Kentucky by a larger margin than he won Alabama in 2016.

McGrath, 44, with her made-for-Hollywood military background, attempted to bridge the divide between rural and urban voters in her bid for Congress, only to come up short in the rural counties of the district by wide margins on election day. But after spending a year appearing at events throughout the state, she appears intent on capitalizing on the perpetual stalemate in Washington D.C.-- and the perceived unpopularity of the man who has gleefully become the face of it.

McConnell’s campaign responded on Twitter with a highlight reel of the attack ads Barr’s campaign used against McGrath in 2018. It included clips of her saying she would support single-payer healthcare if the country were starting from scratch, that she supports abortion rights and a clip of her saying she isn’t very different from the national Democratic Party. [Below]


McGrath launched onto the political scene a little less than two years ago with a similar video, that time standing on a runway while she told her story of accomplishing her childhood dream by becoming the first woman in the Marine Corps to fly in an F-18 into combat. The video quickly brought in both national attention and money as the Democrats attempted to win back control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

After upsetting Lexington Mayor Jim Gray in the primary, McGrath was met with a barrage of ads from Barr and the Republicans defining her as “too liberal for Kentucky.” They were aided by a McGrath comment at a fundraiser in Massachusetts where she said “ I am further left, I am more progressive than anybody in the state of Kentucky.”

The clip played on repeat in the buildup to the election and the narrative stuck. While McGrath talked about putting country over party and taunted Barr, her campaign refused to run traditional attack ads.

That appears to have changed in the Senate race. McGrath went straight for McConnell in her announcement video, blaming him for a congress where “dysfunction and chaos are political weapons, where budgets and healthcare and the Supreme Court are held hostage, a place where ideals go to die” as images of McConnell flash across the screen.

McConnell, 78, has not backed away from his reputation as the killer of bills in the Senate. When Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-California, called him the “grim reaper” in the Senate, McConnell’s campaign openly embraced the moniker. They even started selling t-shirts.

McConnell was ready and released this video, Welcome to the race, Amy, moments after she released hers. It may look pretty good to us, but in a state utterly brainwashed by Fox, it will probably have the opposite effect than it would in a normal state: