Amy McGrath comeback? Former KY Senate candidate said to be considering 2026 run
Amy McGrath, a former Democratic candidate for both the U.S. House and Senate in Kentucky, may jump in the Senate race in 2026.
A source close to McGrath and familiar with her thinking confirmed to the Herald-Leader that McGrath is “seriously considering” running for U.S. Senate again, which would mark her second time vying for Sen. Mitch McConnell’s seat.
In 2020, McGrath lost to McConnell by almost 20 percentage points despite out-raising the incumbent. McGrath brought in more than $94 million into her campaign coffers, while McConnell raised about $63 million.
The fundraising total was a historic mark in Kentucky and U.S. politics, setting a benchmark that no Kentucky campaign has approached since. At the time, along with other 2020 campaigns, it broke the record for most combined funds raised in a U.S. Senate race ever.
But next year, McConnell won’t be on the ballot. Since the 83-year-old senator announced this February that he would not seek reelection, ending his 40-plus-year tenure, a handful of Republicans and Democrats have stepped up to try and replace him.
McGrath herself has not responded to multiple requests for comment this month, but in March she told the Herald-Leader it was too early to know if she’d run or not.
“It’s way too early right now,” McGrath said at the time. “I’m doing what I can helping other candidates right now, I’m focused on that.”
McGrath would join a growing field of Democrats.
State House Minority Floor Leader Pam Stevenson, D-Louisville, has been running for half a year and two new candidates — attorney Logan Forsythe and former CIA officer Joel Willett — just announced their bids last week. All three are running professional campaigns.
If McGrath enters the race, all four candidates would have government service backgrounds, as Forsythe is a former U.S. Secret Service agent and Stevenson is a former U.S. Navy judge advocate general.
Another Democrat with the ability to self-fund and raise serious cash is Dale Romans, one of the most successful horse trainers in Churchill Downs history. Romans has not denied interest in the race.
On the Republican side, four candidates have been barnstorming the state for months. Lexington tech entrepreneur Nate Morris, former Attorney General Daniel Cameron and U.S. Rep. Andy Barr are all raising at least hundreds of thousands of dollars in their efforts to win the GOP nomination. Michael Faris, a veteran and helicopter repairman, is also running.
In previous campaigns, McGrath leaned on her background with the Marine Corps, where she was the first woman to fly a combat mission for the branch. She announced her 2018 campaign against Barr in a video filmed on a landing strip, speaking about her experiences as a boundary-breaking fighter pilot. The video went viral and spurred donations as well as discussions about the type of Democratic candidate that could break through in the era of President Donald Trump.
That 2018 race was much closer than the 2020 one. McGrath gave Barr the closest challenge he’s ever had as an incumbent, losing to him by about three percentage points.
Though her fundraising eclipsed what any Kentucky Democrat has seen since, including Gov. Andy Beshear, McGrath drew some criticism within progressive circles for her campaign. An article in The New Republic titled “The Losing Democrats Who Gobbled Up Money” criticized the mass fundraising efforts for longshot seats at the time in Democratic politics, with McGrath being the primary example.
No Kentucky Democrat has won a U.S. Senate race since the late Wendell Ford’s reelection in 1992. No Democrat has come close to winning since Daniel Mongiardo in 2004, when he lost to late Sen. Jim Bunning by 1.4 percentage points.
Since losing the 2020 race, McGrath has stayed involved in the political discussion.
In 2021, she released a book, “Honor Bound,” about her time in the military and politics. With more than $3 million left over from her U.S. Senate, McGrath also created a political action of the same name, Honor Bound PAC.
In all, she’s launched four different political fundraising groups, the biggest of them being Democratic Majority Action PAC, which has raised and spent hundreds of thousands on some of the highest-profile elections each cycle.
In 2022, Democratic Majority Action spent well over half a million dollars supporting U.S. Senate Democrats; most of that money went to Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock’s reelection, which proved one of the most pivotal for Democrats keeping control. In 2024, the PAC spent $867,000 on former Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris’ ill-fated presidential campaign against Trump.
She also started a political action committee, the American SOS Project, focused on defeating “Trump, anti-democracy” candidates for secretary of state offices across the country. During the 2024 cycle, McGrath also launched Operation Saving Democracy, an anti-Trump Super PAC that raised nearly $1 million in the lead up to Trump’s recent victory.
As of the latest reporting period ending June 30, Honor Bound PAC had spent almost all of its money, Operation Saving Democracy had been terminated, American SOS Project had $184,000 on hand and Democratic Majority Action PAC had about $432,000.
Through this period, McGrath has maintained a regular presence in progressive media, appearing often on the cable television network MSNBC.
This story was originally published September 24, 2025 at 10:33 AM.
