Newly announced Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Amy McGrath has run hard on her background in previous races, emphasizing her time breaking barriers as the first woman to fly a combat mission for the U.S. Marine Corps.
Amy McGrath for U.S. Senate
Amy McGrath is back.
The former Democratic candidate for Congress and Senate announced Monday she’s running for Sen. Mitch McConnell’s seat again in 2026.
Although Kentucky has voted reliably red in federal elections for decades and President Donald Trump earned 64.6% of the vote to easily win the state last year, McGrath said her anti-Trump campaign can win.
It was the Trump administration’s pushes on cuts to Medicaid spending, tariffs and the economy that spurred her decision to run again, she said in an interview with the Herald-Leader.
“What we’re seeing from folks in power right now is not what most Kentuckians voted for. I don’t think any Kentuckians voted for higher prices or less health care. They didn’t vote for more taxes in the form of tariffs and putting rural hospitals at risk. That’s what we’re getting right now. These folks in office, these Republicans, they didn’t just fail to make things better – they intentionally made things worse,” McGrath said.
McGrath has run hard on her background in previous races, emphasizing her time breaking barriers as the first woman to fly a combat mission for the U.S. Marine Corps in campaign videos.
She said she was one of many “pretty ticked off” Kentuckians, and called back to her resume as “somebody that has always stepped up.”
“I feel more and more that we need to step up right now. Kentucky deserves a senator that has courage to stand up for Kentucky, and I think this open seat is an opportunity to have a U.S. Senator who actually is a voice for Kentuckians, and not for his own power, or for billionaires or a rubber stamp for Mar-a-Lago,” McGrath said.
This is not McGrath’s first run at replacing McConnell, who announced in February he won’t run again. She ran against him in 2020, losing by about 20 points despite bringing in a record $94 million to her campaign.
The amount of funds raised compared to candidates in states seen as more likely to flip blue gave some Democrats in Kentucky and across the country heartburn. Maybe if those funds were raised for more competitive races, the thinking goes, then Democrats might have flipped a few extra House seats or another Senate seat like North Carolina.
Democratic Senate candidate Amy McGrath speaks with her supporters and reporters during her final stop on Election Day at the Georgetown-Scott County Regional Airport in Scott County, Ky., Tuesday, November 3, 2020. Silas Walker [email protected]
What does McGrath have to say to those complaints?
For one, she points out that she outperformed the top of the ticket – former president Joe Biden lost to Trump by about 26 points in Kentucky in 2020. The circumstances have also changed, she said.
“This is a different race, it’s a different year, it’s a midterm,” McGrath said. “I ran against a 30-year incumbent who was the Senate Majority Leader. Come on. No one’s going to promise me a rose garden in Kentucky, but we have a Democratic governor, this is an open seat, and with so much going on in our country and here in Kentucky, we absolutely can make this a race, and we absolutely can win.”
Trump’s popularity has fallen since assuming office earlier this year. An aggregation of nationwide polling conducted by analyst Nate Silver shows that about 53% of Americans disapprove of the president, a more than 10 point jump from January.
Campaign ID
McGrath first became a star in natonal Democratic cirlcles with her 2018 run against 6th Congressional District Rep. Andy Barr, who is now one of several Republicans seeking to replace McConnell. She gave Barr the closest race he faced in his 14 years on the ballot since flipping the Central Kentucky district red.
In 2020, McGrath’s positioning on partisan issues took fire from the left and right. Republicans cast her as too liberal for the state. Some progressives took issue with her early campaign comment that McConnell was blocking Trump from getting things done and her statement that she would have voted for Supreme Court of the United States Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a Trump nominee – she reversed her stance shortly after making the comment.
This time around, McGrath is avoiding a particular “brand” within the Democratic party. When asked if it was fair to call her a moderate Democrat, McGrath responded that she was a “common sense Democrat.”
“Nobody can put me in a box. I am a common sense Democrat. I can think for myself. Nobody tells me, from the party, what to do or what to think or how to act. I listen to my fellow Kentuckians. I’m a mom of three kids, I’m a United States Marine and you can look through all the things that I have said – and I’ve said a lot, I haven’t been quiet in the last five, six years – and you can see where I stand on the issues of the day,” McGrath said.
McGrath has, indeed, remained involved in politics since her 2020 loss.
She’s been a regular on progressive media like cable TV station MSNBC, using her military bonafides to push back on Trump administration foreign policy decisions. She’s also spoken out against U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News host who has said that women were not mentally suited to combat roles.
On Israel’s campaign in Gaza, which began with Hamas’ surprise attack killing 1,200 in Israel and has reportedly resulted in the deaths of more than 66,000 Palestinians, McGrath expressed disapproval at Israel’s tactics. The issue has been a hot one in Democrat politics, with party orthodoxy on criticism of the longtime U.S. ally in the Middle East starting to break.
Leading with her desire for the Israeli hostages held in Gaza to be returned, McGrath said she’d push for a surge in humanitarian aid to the region.
“The tactics that have been used in Gaza – using starvation as a weapon – (are) wrong. We absolutely need to have leaders that talk to our longtime ally and make it known that that is wrong, and we should not be using American weapons in an inhumane way anywhere,” McGrath said.
Other issues McGrath said she would home in on include fighting for paid family leave at the federal level, rolling back Trump’s tariffs, lowering drug prices and investing more in education.
Democratic Kentucky Senate candidate Amy McGrath speaks during a campaign stop at Woodland Park in Lexington, Ky., Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2020. Alex Slitz [email protected]
She has also stayed involved in politics via multiple political action committees. Those PACs raised millions in support of primarily Democratic candidates across the country and had more than $600,000, collectively, as of this summer.
When asked which Democrats in the country she admired, McGrath pointed to Beshear as well as former service members running in politically purple states. She mentioned congresswoman Abigail Spangerger, who’s running for governor in Virginia, and Sen. Mark Kelly, D-AZ, as good examples, though she said she appreciates the Democratic Party’s “big tent” inclusion of all stripes.
The field
McGrath joins a growing number of Democrats vying for McConnell’s seat. One commonality between them all: government service backgrounds.
A former U.S. Navy judge advocate general, State House Minority Floor Leader Pam Stevenson, D-Louisville, has been running for half a year. Two newer candidates — attorney and former U.S. Secret Service Logan Forsythe and former CIA officer Joel Willett — announced their bids last month.
McGrath noted a “huge contrast” in their backgrounds with those of the GOP frontrunners, all of whom started their political careers as McConnell interns.
“All of the Democrats have a background in protecting our country and serving our country… and all of the candidates on the other side are either in business for themselves or lifelong politicians. I think that’s a huge distinction right there, Kentuckians will have a choice, and a primary is good,” McGrath said.
Another potential candidate whose name is circulating among Kentucky Democrats: Dale Romans. One of the most successful horse trainers in Churchill Downs history, Romans has not denied interest in the race.
Despite the markedly high interest in the race for Democrats, most outside observers think the seat is a lock for the GOP. The Cook Political Report, Sabato’s Crystal Ball and Inside Elections all rate the race as either “safe” or “solid” Republican.
Joining Barr on the GOP side are former attorney general Daniel Cameron and Lexington tech entrepreneur Nate Morris. While Morris, Cameron and Barr are the three running professional campaigns, Michael Faris, a veteran and small business owner, is also making appearances at events across the state.
Austin Horn
Lexington Herald-Leader
Austin Horn is a politics reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader. He previously worked for the Frankfort State Journal and National Public Radio. Horn has roots in both Woodford and Martin Counties.
