'Whatever will be, will be:' Gray, McGrath make final push for votes in Kentucky.

In February 2017, shortly after President Donald Trump's inauguration, U.S. Rep. Andy Barr was booed by a standing room only crowd in the Montgomery County Courthouse Annex in Mt. Sterling.

It was a sign for Democrats. The Republican incumbent, who had just won his race by 22 points, might be vulnerable.

More than a year later, three candidates made their final push Monday for the chance to challenge Barr in November. Lexington Mayor Jim Gray, former fighter pilot Amy McGrath and State Sen. Reggie Thomas have battled for months, at candidate forums, interviews and on the airwaves. Any of the three would be the strongest candidate Barr has faced since he was elected in 2012.

Gray began his closing day with a campaign stop in Mt. Sterling, in the shadow of the building where Barr was booed.

"We know it's going to be a competitive race, it is a competitive race," he told a small group at the Gateway Art Center. "So every vote counts."

Gray was widely perceived as the front runner when he announced his candidacy in December. In the time since, the race rapidly tightened.

Perhaps his biggest advantage, the name recognition he earned as the popular mayor of Lexington, was cut down by a viral campaign announcement from former fighter pilot Amy McGrath that attracted nationwide attention from Democrats eager to take control of the House of Representatives, helping her pull in the money necessary for her to compete with the well-funded Gray.

Several times, Monday, voters said they recognized McGrath from her television ads before she had a chance to introduce herself.

"You're Amy!" exclaimed Sherry Thompson of Versailles, stopping for a coffee at Melissa's Cottage Cafe.

Thompson wouldn't say who she plans to vote for, but said McGrath made a good impression.

"I'm a fan of girl power," said Thompson, who has two daughters. "I always appreciate women going into a traditionally male field."

But the largest indication that the race tightened came in a last minute attack ad launched by the Gray campaign Friday evening. In it, the Gray campaign criticizes McGrath for living in the district less than a year.

“Now she’s running for Congress to represent the one place she’s never lived: here,” a narrator says. “In fact, she moved here from Maryland just last year to run for Congress. We honor Amy McGrath’s service, but shouldn’t she live here for a while before she tries to represent us?”

Gray largely avoided talking about the ad to voters Monday. In a radio interview with WMST, he didn't even make an allusion to McGrath, instead choosing to talk about the opioid abuse crisis, tax reform and how quality infrastructure is necessary to recruit businesses.

"The people only have their elected officials to represent them," Gray said in the radio interview. "They don't have lobbyists, they can't call on lobbyists. And being able to understand that difference and having the conviction from experience to deal with it, that's a big deal."

When Gray was asked about the reaction to his ad he talked around it.

"What we're doing is we're illustrating the issues in this campaign, we're illustrating all the issues in the campaign and people care about their elected representatives," Gray said. "They care about their experience, they care about performance and they care about results and they care about the contributions that we've made in the course of contributing in the district where we're living."

Several voters expressed to McGrath disappointment with Gray's ad, including Carl Ellis, 75, a former city councilman in Versailles.

"I'm a little disappointed he went negative on her," said Ellis, who wouldn't say who he will vote for Tuesday, but plans to back either Democrat in the fall.

"We're always citizens of Kentucky, even though we're in the military, we vote in Kentucky," McGrath told another voter who said she found the ad "very unfair."

"We'll see what happens, but for me it's like water off a duck's back," McGrath said.

Gray wasn't the first to challenge McGrath over her recent move to the district. State Sen. Reggie Thomas pointed it out several times over the course of the campaign, including subtle references during his initial online ad.

Thomas, who has struggled to keep up with McGrath and Gray financially, toured the district in the final days of the race. On Sunday, his 65th birthday, he celebrated by talking to voters in Montgomery County, Bath Country and Menifee County.

McGrath spent much of Monday morning at local restaurants, introducing herself to diners and asking them to get out and vote on Tuesday.

"My message is out there, people have sort of made up their minds and whatever will be, will be," McGrath said of the election results. "I'm not in panic mode. I feel I've done the job that I needed to do, we've done the debates, the fundraising. We're at the point now where we just sort of sit back and watch what happens."

She joked that on Tuesday she'll go to the movies and learn the result when she walks out, "instead of sitting there stewing all day."

This story was originally published May 21, 2018 at 4:00 PM with the headline "'Whatever will be, will be:' Gray, McGrath make final push for votes in Kentucky.."