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Amy McGrath Writes Mitch McConnell – and this Time He Writes Right Back

Posted on
July 18, 2019
by Nathan Kurz
Former Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath declared her challenge to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in 2020 with a campaign spot retelling the story of her childhood letter to McConnell – a letter he never answered.

Unlike that McGrath childhood letter – McConnell answered the McGrath ad right back – with his own negative missive.

In McGrath’s opening Senate spot, she sits at her childhood dining room table to retell a story she used in a viral ad that launched her unsuccessful bid for Congress in 2018. She recalls writing a letter to elected officials in her home state of Kentucky pleading to reverse a ban that prohibited women from flying fighter jets. While in her previous spot, McGrath briefly mentions that McConnell never responded to her letter, this time she makes his apathy the center of her appeal. “I’ve often wondered, how many other people did Mitch McConnell never take the time to write back? Or even think about?” she asks the camera.

With sobering piano notes sounding in the background, the video pans to other McConnell constituents – an unemployed steel worker, a woman suffering from diabetes, a coal minor forced to retire with black lung disease, a student in need of federal loans – whom the six-term Kentucky Senator disregarded in similar fashion. The camera then focuses back on McGrath, who makes her case as photos of McConnell scroll by: ““Everything that’s wrong in Washington had to start someplace…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. Where dysfunction and chaos are political weapons. Where budgets and health care and the Supreme Court are held hostage. A place where ideals go to die.” The tagline that appears at the end of the ad sums up her appeal: Defeat Mitch, Defend Democracy.

Playing to the frustrations of Kentuckians makes sense despite their strong lean towards the GOP. At a 36 percent approval rating in his home state, McConnell is the most unpopular senator in the country.

Just after posting her spot, McGrath got a reminder that McConnell can play the attack ad game better than anyone. Less than an hour after the release of the video, McConnell’s office countered with a spot of its own rehashing the same narrative that defeated McGrath in 2018: she is too liberal for the red state of Kentucky. The inelegant video hammers McGrath with audio and video of comments from her previous run that she will likely spend the entirety of her new campaign trying to walk back. She claimed to be “more progressive than anybody in the state of Kentucky,” a mantra the ad tries to reiterate with subtle messaging. McGrath’s comments supporting universal healthcare are tied to a pledge to support “government-run” healthcare and images of Bernie Sanders, Hilary Clinton and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez. Likewise, her claim to be “a voice for progressive values” while not being different than “Democratic Party National” are linked to images of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer on one hand, and Elizabeth Warren and Ocasio-Cortez on the other, suggesting Kentucky voters should fear her inner liberal persona.

As in many American political campaigns, people often seem more concrete than abstract issues—and are easier to ambush. This race is likely to only get nastier as it unfolds.
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