Look at the recent Daily Bits on the website. Remember December 5. Priorities.
2020 General Election
I have been putting this off. I did not want to urge readers to support a candidate and then find the candidate lost the primary. Not for this seat. Not for any seat. But especially not for this seat. There are still primary candidates. But the Kentucky House of Representatives Minority Leader will be working for the newly elected Democratic governor. He is not running for the US Senate. A popular sports radio announcer in a state where basketball is important has also announced he will not be running for the US Senate. Kentucky Progressives are urging the remaining primary opponents – stay in the race. They even have someone contemplating entering the race.
We can talk about Amy McGrath https://amymcgrath.com/ now, though. She will be the nominee. She has lots of money. Not as much as Mitch McConnell. Not as much as she needs. More than money, to be a candidate who will keep the pipe dream of defeating Mitch McConnell lit, she needs to overcome her bad start.
Amy McGrath flirted with expressing support for Brett Kavanaugh as Trump’s Supreme Court nominee. She retreated when Democrats around the country reacted badly (Badly is an understatement). Neither Democratic Progressives nor Republicans will let go of that bad start. She doesn’t get props for being an amateur. She is not an amateur anymore. She has to integrate her flirtation into her story.
Amy McGrath probably can. Even though she lost in her run for Congress in 2018, no insurgent Democratic candidate started stronger. Her campaign with a video that went viral. The story behind the video is powerful. Mitch McConnell even has a bit part.
As a child, Amy McGrath visited the National Museum of the United State Air Force. That visit, a middle school study of the Air Force, and a family visit to Wright-Patterson AF Base convinced her. She would be a fighter pilot. She wrote to Mitch McConnell, to Kentucky’s other senator, and to her Member of Congress urging them to change the law to allow women to become fighter pilots. Her Member of Congress was condescending. Her Senators did not respond. She followed up; wrote to every Member of Congress. Pat Schroeder of Colorado promised her that Congress was working on it.
Amy McGrath could try another letter or another video. She could explain her goal is to be a US Senator, a moderate one. She hopes to build a powerful coalition of moderate Democratic Senators. From 2020 candidates like Mississippi’s Mike Espy, North Carolina’s Cal Cunningham, Georgia’s Matt Lieberman plus sitting Senators including Alabama’s Doug Jones and West Virginia’s Joe Manchin. She took a wrong turn when she considered supporting Brad Kavanaugh, but nothing like the wrong turn that Mitch Mcconnell has led Republican Senators in taking. Blind support for as erratic and dangerous a President as Donald Trump is dangerous for the country. While Republicans like Georgia Governor Brian Kemp are willing to challenge Trump, McConnell is more Trumpish than the President himself.
Refocus on McConnell and what’s wrong with him. Explain again who she is. Not an amateur. Not a fresh face. Amy McGrath has great story. She is someone Kentucky can be proud of as its Senator.
Pat Schroeder came through. Amy McGrath went to the Naval Academy. The rule prohibiting women in combat was changed her senior year of high school. She trained as a pilot and, in Afghanistan, became the first woman to fly an F-18 on a combat mission. That was the first of many missions. She did a second tour flying in Iraq. Later, as a Marine Corps Congressional Fellow, she provided defense and foreign policy advice. Still later, she served as the Marine Corps liaison to the State Department. She had a military career Kentucky is proud of.
McConnell had no bone spurs. He had optic neuritis. Four months after he joined the reserves (achieved after interning with his Republican Senator, a valuable spot for someone seeking to avoid combat during the Vietnam War), he was discharged as unfit for combat because of this treatable condition. There are stories about this, files that could be opened if McConnell allowed it, even the possibility of a court martial file. Kentuckians have heard this before. Nevertheless, McConnell’s brief military career is a sharp contrast to Amy McGrath’s military career.
Their family experiences contrast as well. Amy McGrath’s husband is a retired Navy Lt. Commander. He was a Republican and remained a Republican after his wife became political. Mitch McConnell’s first wife seems to have been driven toward feminism by the marriage. After the divorce she became Director of the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College. Mitch McConnell’s second wife, Elaine Chao, and her family have been the source of his wealth, while he has been a source of theirs. His wife is now Donald Trump’s Secretary of Transportation. She was previously GW Bush’s Secretary of Labor. Her sister’s husband is Director of the US Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation in the Labor Department. McConnell is one of the wealthiest members of Congress, wealth that was created, in part, by a gift from his shipping magnate father in law in an amount that may have been as much as $25 million.
Amy McGrath can make these contrasts. She has the campaign money to do that. Her website has no details about policy. Instead, it has a picture of her as a tough character in front of a fighter plane. She touts her 12 years registered as an independent, her interest in practical solutions, and her slogan – anti-corruption, anti-obstruction, anti-B.S.
It doesn’t require much digging to get a picture of her political views. She has been conscious of women’s issues from when she was a child. Not only because of her interest in flying. Also because her mother was a doctor; one of very few women doctors in Kentucky then. Her mother’s health also informed Amy McGrath’s political views. Her mother had to retrain and switch from pediatrics to psychology because of her physlcal limitations.
Help Amy McGrath https://amymcgrath.com/ with money. Find ways to volunteer. She will need more money and more volunteers than you can imagine. She is taking on a rational and acquisitive politician who has done more to keep Donald Trump in the presidency than any other politician. Except for winning the presidency, no Democratic victory would be better.
Help some other Democratic candidates for the Senate as well.
The most vulnerable Democrat
Alabama Reelect Doug Jones
Other vulnerable Democrats
Michigan Reelect Gary Peters
Minnesota Reelect Tina Smith
New Hampshire Reelect Jeanne Shaheen
Democrats running against the most vulnerable Republican incumbents
Arizona Elect Astronaut Mark Kelly
North Carolina Elect Environmentalist businessman Cal Cunningham
Colorado*
Democrats running against other vulnerable Republicans
Alaska Elect Physician, Fisherman Al Gross
Iowa Elect Businesswoman Theresa Greenfield
Kentucky Elect former fighter pilot Amy McGrath
Maine Elect Maine House Majority Leader Sara Gideon
Mississippi Elect former Congressman and Ag Secy Mike Espy
South Carolina Elect former Party Chair Jaime Harrison
*Colorado is the third in this group. Is former governor and presidential candidate John Hickenlooper far enough ahead of the rest of the Democratic primary field tp definitely be the nominee?
