Marine veteran Amy McGrath (D) has upset Lexington Mayor Jim Gray (D) in a key House race primary, becoming the latest female political neophyte to knock off a more established male politician in a Democratic primary this year.
McGrath led Gray by 49 percent to 41 percent with 95 percent of precincts reporting. The Associated Press has called the race.
She’ll face Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY) in a GOP-leaning district centered on Lexington that national Democrats are bullish about winning this November.
McGrath made a big splash when she jumped into the race with an impressive campaign video highlighting her experience as a fighter pilot that kickstarted her fundraising in a big way. But the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had long dreamed of convincing the well-liked Gray to run for the seat, and kept recruiting him to run even though McGrath’s campaign was already underway.
The race definitely pitted a more establishment candidate against an outsider — Gray had been his party’s nominee against Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) in 2016, and carried the district in that race, while McGrath has never run for office before. But neither candidate ran particularly hard to the left, as has happened in some other establishment-versus-outsider Democratic primaries this year.
And while national Democrats had begun the race preferring Gray, they’d become increasingly impressed with McGrath’s campaign — enough so that the DCCC stayed officially neutral in the race.
“She’s shown she can mount quite a campaign,” Rep. Jim Yarmuth (D-KY), who sources say helped talk Gray into the race, told TPM late last week. “People are taking her a lot more seriously than they did early on.”
Republicans sought to paint her as a hardline progressive in the wake of her victory.
“Despite their best efforts, national Democrats were unable to stop radical liberal Amy McGrath from squeaking her way through the primary,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokeswoman Maddie Anderson said in a statement. “When even the DCCC thinks you’re too liberal for the District, that’s an insurmountable problem. The NRCC looks forward to Andy Barr’s reelection.”
But national Democrats were less concerned about her liberal views as her being an untested candidate — a concern she’s allayed in this primary win. And they will likely invest heavily to help her campaign this fall.
“Battle-tested in more ways than one, Amy McGrath ran a tremendous race to win this competitive primary and could not be in a stronger position to win in November,” DCCC Chairman Ben Ray Luján said in a Tuesday evening statement. “Amy has built a formidable campaign, and voters across the district have responded to her message of leadership and standing up for affordable health care. With her inspiring record of service and all of the momentum at her back, there is no question that Amy McGrath is ready to flip this key district.”
I voted for Gray because he’s done a good job as our mayor, but I’m not unhappy with McGrath. I only wish she’d have moved back home to NKY to take on the 4th District incumbent. Would’ve been great to have a legitimate shot at flipping both the 6th and the 4th, but oh well, it was nice to have two good candidates to choose from.
I hate that the media is trying to paint Gray as “the establishment candidate” or “part of the good ol’ boy network” - that’s just ridiculous. The man is openly gay and I see the evidence of him taking on a big corporate monopoly here in CKY every day. He promised to make Lexington the largest American city with a Gigabyte internet network, with conservatives and TW/Spectrum fighting him all the way. I see the trucks building the infrastructure in my neighborhood every day now.
I hope he doesn’t give up public service altogether, and I hope McGrath lives up to her promises should she manage to unseat Barr. Any Democrat who thinks she won’t get attacked mercilessly because of her veteran status is a fool.
So — don’t underestimate a Marine.
She can hit back with: “as a Marine, I know how to identify and defeat people who want to hurt Americans.”
Could be, but my money would be on her with her combat experience to withstand the heat.
Thanks for sharing your locals perspective