Amy McGrath was crowned by the media as a superstar, a Democrat who could finally take the fight to Mitch McConnell in Kentucky. She raked in $2.5 million in fundraising on the first day of her campaign before starting her friendly media tour. From there, everything fell apart.
McGrath stumbled over press questions and nearly lost to underfunded primary challenger Charles Booker. Now, her bruised and battered campaign must face McConnell’s machine in a race where she’s already an underdog. And the McConnell campaign is going to remind everyone of the mistakes she’s made along the way.
McConnell’s campaign just dropped a new ad titled “Reviews,” highlighting some of the media comments on her campaign, including calling her uninspiring, wooden, and mistake-prone. Running statewide, the ad concludes with words from Booker himself, saying of McGrath, “I know that Kentuckians can smell BS from miles away.”
The media were in McGrath’s corner early, because knocking important Republicans out of Congress has always been their forte, but they seem to have recognized it isn’t meant to be this year. Chris Cillizza has already set up McGrath in the martyr role; if she can hold McConnell’s attention, then the GOP can’t spread money out to more vulnerable incumbents.
This looks to be a tough year for Senate Republicans at the ballot box, but between Kentucky’s natural GOP leaning and McGrath being a notoriously bad campaigner, McConnell has a pretty decent shot at making his way back to the Senate for six more years.
