Attack ads for McConnell and McGrath pick up as Kentucky begins COVID-19 reopening
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell launched an ad attacking Democratic Senate candidate Amy McGrath Tuesday, staring right past next month’s primary and focusing on November’s general election in earnest.
The ad comes as McGrath’s campaign has launched several spots of its own criticizing McConnell’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
McConnell’s 30-second ad, which will air across the state, treads a familiar path, saying McGrath has launched attacks against McConnell “because she doesn’t want you to find out about her far-left record.”
It then says she wanted President Donald Trump to be impeached, opposes a border wall and supports abortion through the ninth month — a claim that is based on a radio interview McGrath gave in her 2018 race for a seat in the U.S. House. When pushed on the subject in 2018, McGrath’s campaign said she respects the current law, which puts restrictions on abortions.
The ad closes the way all attack ads against McGrath have concluded since 2018: by playing a clip of McGrath saying “I am further left, I am more progressive than anybody in the State of Kentucky.”
The McGrath campaign has pushed back against that audio clip, calling it doctored because the full context of what she was talking about has never been released by Republicans. (McGrath’s campaign also has not released the full audio, saying they don’t have it).
“It’s clear that Mitch McConnell is running scared,” said Terry Sebastian, a spokesman for the campaign. “He knows he’s turned his back on Kentucky, and all he can do now is lie about Lt. Colonel Amy McGrath to cover up 35 years of putting partisan politics and special interests ahead of Kentuckians.”
In McGrath’s latest push against McConnell, which began airing over the weekend, she says people are turning to their states for support rather than the federal government during the coronavirus pandemic. She commends the response to COVID-19 of four governors — Gov. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio; Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D-New York; Gov. Larry Hogan, R-Maryland; and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat.
In contrast, she noted that McConnell has suggested financially-ailing states should “just declare bankruptcy” and that he “doesn’t want to pass what he calls blue state bailouts, even though Kentucky would get badly needed help, too.”
Both of the Republican governors McGrath praised in the ad have condemned it. In a statement issued by the Ohio Republican Party Saturday, DeWine said McConnell was focused on the pandemic.
“Ohioans are focused exclusively on getting through COVID-19 and getting our people back to work and I’m proud to work with partners at the local and federal level to get it done,” DeWine said. “It’s for that reason that I’m particularly disappointed with an attack ad by Amy McGrath that uses my image against my friend, Mitch McConnell.”
Both McGrath and McConnell have attempted to tie themselves to governors of the opposite party as people have turned to state leaders for guidance instead of a heavily polarized federal government. In an ad touting his own work to provide relief through the CARES Act, which will provide an estimated $11 billion to Kentucky, McConnell used an image of him with Beshear.
Beshear has not denounced the ad and has said repeatedly that he is not dealing with politics during the pandemic. He has, however, implored McConnell to provide federal relief for state and local governments, an issue that is currently being negotiated in Washington.
The dueling ads are potentially a glimpse at Kentucky’s future through November, as both McConnell and McGrath are among the best-funded Senate campaigns in the 2020 Senate elections.
Still, both candidates have to make it out of their respective primaries.
As she’s being called “extreme” by McConnell, McGrath faces signs of revolt from the small but vocal progressive wing of the Democratic Party, many of whom are supporting the two more progressive candidates in the Democratic primary: Rep. Charles Booker, D-Louisville, and Lincoln County farmer Mike Broihier.
Booker’s campaign Tuesday released a list of 16 Democratic members of the Kentucky House of Representatives who have endorsed his campaign, including all of the members of Democratic leadership. There are 37 Democratic members of the House, which means Booker got the endorsement of less than half of his colleagues.
Only one member from Lexington, Rep. George Brown, endorsed Booker.
This story was originally published May 19, 2020 at 11:32 AM.
