The Truth About Amy McGrath
Democratic candidate Amy McGrath has taken on the arduous task of ousting six-term Kentucky Senator and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in an election that has been nothing short of a battle since announcing her candidacy over the summer. A retired Marine fighter pilot with 89 combat missions in her 20-year military career, she's the perfect candidate to take on the challenge in the historically red state that hasn't had a change in their Senate seat for 36 years (via CNN).
With a platform boasting change, McGrath has brought to light the glaring political issues every American faces going into this election. "Our country has never needed a new generation of leaders more than right now," she said at a rally in 2020 (via AP)."We are more divided than ever. We are more partisan than ever. Our Congress is more dysfunctional than ever before."
Regardless of the outcome of the 2020 Senate elections, McGrath has planted the seeds of change in the minds of many party line voters in Kentucky — a notoriously conservative state where political analysts have already awarded an early victory to President Donald Trump with eight electoral votes, according to 270ToWin.
A career in the military shaped Amy McGrath
Born and raised in Edgewood, Kentucky, Amy McGrath grew up knowing her mother, Marianne McGrath, fought the odds to become one of the first women to graduate from the University of Kentucky Medical School and pursue a career as a pediatrician and psychiatrist.
According to her official campaign biography, McGrath was just 13 years old when she began dreaming of a future military career that would allow her to fly fighter jets. At the time, women were not eligible to serve in combat roles, so the enterprising teen, likely emboldened by her mother's achievements, wrote a letter to Senator Mitch McConnell asking him to fight for reform. Although she never heard back from the career politician, her dream never faltered, and she not only became a Marine, but she became the first woman in the Corps. to fly an F/A-18 in combat.
McGrath served in countless combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan over her 20-year military career. After completing her tours, she served as a Congressional Fellow advising a senior member of the U.S. House of Representatives and then in the Pentagon as a liaison to the State Department and other federal government agencies. The catalyst for her future interest in politics, McGrath retired, moved back to Kentucky with her husband and children, and ran for office. As CNN reported, she was almost successful in ousting GOP incumbent Congressman Andy Barr in 2018.
Amy McGrath wants to see change
As she told the Courier Journal, Amy McGrath was a registered independent for 12 years and is married to a Republican. However, she is more interested in distancing herself from the typical partisan issues associated with most campaigns. Her adversaries argue that she is too progressive for the red state, but McGrath counters that the issues in the election aren't based on policy. As AP noted, McGrath stresses the importance of term limits for senators so representation in Washington is not self-serving.
"Everything that's wrong in Washington had to start someplace," the mother of three states in her campaign launch video. "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?" She goes on to point the finger at Mitch McConnell, stating that he "was elected a lifetime ago, and who has, bit by bit, year by year, turned Washington into something we all despise — where dysfunction and chaos are political weapons."
Her policies regarding issues like abortion, climate change and legalized marijuana are touted as too liberal for the conservative majority, but she eschews labels. "I don't think you can put me in a box," she told the Louisville Future. "And I think this is what's wrong with politics today...there are issues where I'm more conservative and there are issues where I'm more progressive. That's most Americans."