By word and deed, McGrath is with us.

By BERRY CRAIG

AFT Local 1360

On Jan. 31, 1944, my late father, Berry Craig Jr., was aboard a rocket-firing LCI (Landing Craft Infantry) that helped provide covering fire for the first Marine landings on Japanese-held Kwajalein Atoll in World War II.

For these past weeks, I've been privileged to provide a different--thankfully peaceful--kind of coverage for the first woman Marine to fly in a jet in combat.

I don't know how many stories this old reporter has written about the Democrat who wants Mitch McConnell's job. But I don't plan on this one being the last.

I hope I get a chance to write more stories about Sen. McGrath.

Win or lose, the Annapolis grad and retired lieutenant colonel is everything McConnell's not. 

McConnell is a bare-knucks union buster who's spent 35 years in Washington trying to wipe us out. His wife was George W. Bush's anti-labor secretary of labor.

The Kentucky State AFL-CIO unanimously endorsed McGrath because by word and deed, she's squarely in labor's corner. She's with us on our issues. Her staffers belong to Louisville IBEW Local 369.

McConnell is an old-time if-you're-poor-it's-your-fault social Darwinist. He believes only rich white lives matter. 

McConnell is Wall Street. McGrath's Main Street.

McGrath treasures the diversity of our state from Jordan to Jenkins. Like Lincoln and FDR, she believes government has a responsibility to help people who need help. She wants Kentuckians to have good jobs, especially good union jobs.

McConnell has spent years trying to get rid of the Affordable Care Act. McGrath wants to build on and expand the ACA.

McGrath believes health care is a human right. McConnell thinks it's a privilege for rich folks like him.

McConnell demonizes Democrats. He believes politics is a holy war. He smeared McGrath with ads that were riddled with flat lies and deliberately misleading statements. 

McGrath's husband is a Republican. "We are all Americans--we are all Kentuckians," I've heard her say.

The Marines took Kwajalein on Feb. 3, 1944. With our help, McGrath can take Moscow Mitch today.