Clipboards or congressmen? Barr and McGrath firing up voters in different ways.

In the final days leading up to Tuesday’s election in Kentucky’s Sixth Congressional District, Democratic candidate Amy McGrath and U.S. Rep. Andy Barr, R-Lexington, have the same goal: get voters to the polls.

They’re just going about it in different ways.

Barr has made a show of bringing in prominent national Republicans. In the past week, he’s held events with House Speaker Paul Ryan and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and, on Monday, he’ll stump with the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr.

McGrath’s featured guests have been her campaign workers holding clipboards. At her campaign events, she’s either directing people to sign up for shifts knocking on doors and making phone calls or she’s speaking briefly before sending them off to knock on doors and make phone calls.

Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes has estimated that statewide turnout of registered voters will be about 46 percent Tuesday, though a somewhat higher rate is expected in the 19 counties where McGrath and Barr have been battling.

At a rally hosted Thursday by the Kentucky Democratic Party and the Kentucky Pipe Trades Association, McGrath asked people to volunteer an hour each day leading up to the election.

“This is a very, very tight race,” McGrath said. “What’s going to win this thing is not commercials. What’s going to win this thing is you, on the ground, talking to people, knocking on doors, calling people. You know a lot of people don’t vote in the midterms, you know this. We need everybody to get out and get people out to vote.”

For Barr, the old-fashioned political rally has become his primary way of whipping up voter enthusiasm. At Gaffney Farm in Versailles Friday, Barr stood on a stage framed by John Deere tractors as he made his case against McGrath.

“If the idea is good for my constituents, if the idea is good for the country, then I’m for that idea and I will fight for that idea,” Barr said with a nod toward McGrath’s slogan of “Country over Party.”

Barr then rattled off a hyperbolic list of McGrath’s positions on a variety of issues: abortion rights, the Republican tax bill, border security and health care.

“All of those things are hyper-partisan,” Barr said. “That’s putting the party, the far left wing of the Democratic party, over country.”

Aside from hosting a rally with former Vice President Joe Biden last month, McGrath has avoided bringing in national Democrats. Barr and the outside groups supporting him have repeatedly attempted to tie McGrath to national Democrats who are unpopular in the district, such as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

When asked about Barr’s decision to bring in national Republicans, McGrath said it shows he’s part of the Republican establishment.

“This is what he does, that’s what he’s a part of,” McGrath said. “I would expect him to do that, you know I’m not part of the establishment of either party and that’s not what our country needs right now.”

In their closing arguments to voters, both candidates painted the election as a battle over the direction of the country.

McGrath renewed her message that the election is about civility and candidates who will put aside their differences to work toward a larger goal.

“I would probably not be standing up here if it were just about the issues,” McGrath said. “This election is about the soul of our country. It is about who we are as Kentuckians and as Americans. It is about who we want to be, what kind of country we want to live in.”

Barr touted the economy and said Americans are more prosperous than ever. But he also painted the election as a choice between conservative values and liberal values.

“I want you on Tuesday night to be part of saying to CNN and MSNBC that the blue wave stops right here in the Bluegrass State,” Barr said.

This story was originally published November 4, 2018 at 5:19 PM.