In first debate, KY Democratic candidates set their real target: Mitch McConnell.
Amy McGrath has raised the fourth-most of any candidate in the country running for U.S. Senate. She’s been airing television ads with fighter planes since July and has been endorsed by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
On Thursday night in Newport three of her opponents (10 people are running in the Democratic primary) had an opportunity to try and take down her plane at Indivisible Northern Kentucky District 4’s Democratic U.S. Senate Candidate Forum.
In a roughly two hour forum, the candidates fielded questions ranging from healthcare, to foreign policy, to money in politics and how they would attempt to reconnect with rural Democrats.
Most of their answers boiled down to one thing: their desire to get rid of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Republican incumbent.
“I wanted to respect the rules of the debate,” said Mike Broihier, a Lincoln County farmer, when asked why he refrained from criticizing McGrath. “It’s their house, their rules, they said no taking shots at other candidates. I followed the rules.”
Broihier and Kentucky Rep. Charles Booker, D-Louisville, have been running to McGrath’s left, dismissing her as too moderate and someone who is afraid to take the progressive stands they feel the country needs. They were joined on stage Thursday by Jimmy Ausbrooks, a mental health counselor from Franklin.
“I think just being on stage shows the contrast,” Booker said. “I think being declarative on issues shows the contrast. And I think showing that we’re not going to back down, we’re not going to equivocate shows the contrast.”
There were certainly contrasts between McGrath and the other candidates. On healthcare, McGrath was the only one on stage who didn’t say she supported a single payer healthcare system, saying instead that she supports a public option where people are given the option to buy a government healthcare plan.
On the environment, McGrath talked about the need to bring more infrastructure to rural communities that have been left behind by coal, while Booker talked about the need for a “Kentucky New Deal” and Broihier talked about a transition to a “Green economy.”
When it came to higher education, while Booker said “college should be free,” McGrath talked about how she supports an expansion of the national service (as in the way veterans receive free college education) to include nurses and others who go where services are needed (Broihier also called for an expansion of the national service).
There were similarities — the candidates all agreed that Congress should enact stricter regulations on guns and the need for immigration reform — but the contrast matches a schism that has formed in the Democratic Party, as some progressive Democrats have grown impatient with moderate candidates in the era of President Donald Trump.
Broihier and Booker represent a more progressive wing of the party (Booker has endorsed U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders for president) and say that attempting to run a campaign as a moderate against McConnell won’t work because it’s never worked before.
McGrath is firmly in the moderate camp. After having been painted as being “further left than anyone in Kentucky” (her own words) in her failed 2018 bid for Congress, she’s attempted to solidify her moderate bona-fides, banking on the fact that she can win over people who dislike McConnell or at least get them to not vote for him.
“These challenges, we can face them, we can take care of them,” McGrath said. “And there’s really only one man standing in the way of what we need to do in Kentucky… the start of it is getting rid of him. Folks I’ve built a team that can do that. Join me.”
Despite her attempts to appeal to moderates, McConnell’s campaign, which appears solely focused on McGrath, still called her an “extreme liberal” after the debate.
“From the awkward microphone fumble to her poorly executed closing statement, extreme liberal Amy McGrath reminded voters tonight exactly why she’s too far left for Kentucky voters as a candidate who supports single-payer government-run health care and opposes President Trump’s border wall,” said Kevin Golden, McConnell’s campaign manager.
Northern Kentucky has been a target of Democrats in recent years, and Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, won both Campbell and Kenton counties on his way to beating Bevin in 2019.
After the debate, Broihier seemed fine with the fact that he didn’t get the chance to go after McGrath.
“It’s not about forums,” Broihier said. “This is a good way to inform voters, get a little bit of publicity, put us all side by side.”
The Democratic primary is May 19.
This story was originally published March 5, 2020 at 10:18 PM.
