By BERRY CRAIG
AFT Local 1630
Amy McGrath likens the job she wants to a job she had.
The Democrat, who’s out to unseat Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, was the first woman Marine to fly in combat. An F/A 18 Hornet weapons officer, she logged 89 missions against Al Qaida and Taliban targets in Iraq and Afghanistan. Later, McGrath, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate and retired lieutenant colonel, was an F/A 18 pilot.
“I supported the grunts—the Marines on the ground," she told the Kentucky State AFL-CIO after a Monday campaign rally in Paducah. They were the ones doing the hard job.”
She said serving in the Senate should work the same way. Singling out McConnell, she added, “We’ve got to have leaders in Washington who support workers and not just the one percent and the special interests.”
McGrath spoke to a crowd that gathered in the parking lot of the local Democratic campaign headquarters. Timing was on her side. No sooner did the rally end than a rainstorm pelted the pavement where everybody had gathered--all present masked and observing social distancing.
Her supporters included union members; the Kentucky State AFL-CIO endorsed McGrath after she won the June Democratic primary. She also enjoyed union backing two years ago when she mounted a strong challenge against 6th District Rep. Andy Barr, R-Lexington. McGrath lives in Georgetown.
In her stump speech, McGrath charged that if McConnell were in the military, he’d be guilty of “dereliction of duty.” The faithful cheered and chuckled at the jab.
She poured it on McConnell. “With coronavirus, think about this fact: this is the first major international crisis in which no one in the world is looking to us for leadership. Mitch McConnell has made us weaker. When bad things happen, he just backs up into the bushes like Homer Simpson.”
In the post rally interview with the state AFL-CIO, she thanked the labor federation for getting behind her candidacy. “Everybody wants to talk about job creators,” she said. “Guess who the wealth creators are? People who work. People who are in unions.”
McGrath said she appreciates “the power of unions to make sure that everybody gets paid a fair wage and has a good life.”
Unions consider McConnell to be one of the most anti-labor lawmakers in Washington. Since he was first sworn in in 1985, he has voted the union position on legislation just 12 percent of the time, according to the AFL-CIO.
“He has systematically--year by year, decade by decade—undermined unions and the power of collective bargaining,” she said. “It’s unacceptable. We’re tired of it.”
Former University of Kentucky and pro-basketball star Rex Chapman teamed up with the candidate on the stump. “When Amy beats Mitch in November, I will feel as though it’s been my greatest team effort ever,” he said.