New Faces in Congress is a diary series meant to highlight our new and diverse members of Congress in the Democratic Party. These 36 House freshmen range from political neophytes to seasoned legislative veterans. The series will run every Sunday morning, bright and early.
Last week, the New Faces in Congress series continued with a profile on Rep. Brittany Pettersen from Colorado’s 7th district. If you missed it, feel free to click on this link to read all about her!
This member of Congress is the only person elected from the Democratic Party in the state. He is used to working in the minority, because he was Minority Leader in the Kentucky Senate before joining Congress. He was one of the youngest leaders of a legislative body nationwide when he ascended to the role in 2018.
In order to punch his ticket to Congress, the first thing that was necessary was for Rep. John Yarmuth to retire. After that, he needed to navigate a tricky primary with opposition coming from his left. He was able to quash that challenge fairly easily. That was tantamount to election in the deep blue 3rd district of Kentucky.
Today, the spotlight is on Rep. Morgan McGarvey!
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Rep. Morgan McGarvey (Kentucky-3)
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Biography
The first stop on this long winded tour about Rep. Morgan McGarvey is his campaign website. There, he describes his background and why he became a politician.
Morgan realized early on that he had a passion for policy and civic engagement and earned scholarships to obtain his undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of Missouri before pursuing a law degree from the University of Kentucky. As a lawyer, Morgan specializes in representing people facing discrimination and small businesses.
Morgan decided to first run for Kentucky State Senate because he knew we needed a new generation of leaders in Frankfort. This meant standing up for LGBTQ rights, addressing climate change and using his firsthand experience navigating the healthcare system with premature twins to advocate for more affordable healthcare. He ran that first campaign the only way he knows how, by meeting voters where they are. He knocked on tens of thousands of doors in his first campaign and in his following reelection.
He first ran for Congress in 2022 to keep fighting for those values in Washington, DC. Since taking office in January 2023, Morgan is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, New Democrat Coalition, HBCU Caucus, Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, and co-chairs the Congressional Bourbon Caucus. He sits on the House Veterans Affairs and Small Business Committees, working to protect our veterans’ hard-earned benefits and help small businesses in Louisville grow and thrive.
His House website goes into more detail about his background and family.
Morgan McGarvey is proud to represent the people of Kentucky’s Third Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is a lifelong Louisvillian who, before being elected to Congress, served for a decade in the Kentucky State Senate, including four years as the Minority Leader of the Senate Democratic Caucus.
As a state Senator and Minority Leader, Morgan fought back against conservative attacks on public education, organized labor, reproductive rights, and Kentucky’s working families. But he did so while building relationships with his colleagues in both parties to pass legislation that helps and protects Kentuckians every day. Across 10 years in Frankfort, Morgan wrote and passed 18 bills into law. Those include passing the first insurance mandate in Kentucky history to make sure that low-birthweight babies get the nutrients they need to survive, laws that protects victims of human trafficking and domestic violence, and a law that allowed Simmons College – Louisville’s only HBCU – to lower tuition costs for its students and re-start its teacher training program, putting more Black teachers into classrooms across Louisville and Kentucky.
Morgan graduated from Manual High School in Louisville. He earned a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Missouri, where he met his wife Chris, and a J.D. from the University of Kentucky School of Law. Morgan, Chris, and their three children – Clara, Wilson, and Greta – live in the Highlands of Louisville.
CSPAN has interviewed him, and I have posted the full interview below. Of note, his family has been documented by the same journalist for decades for the Louisville Courier-Journal and National Geographic.
Before even getting this far, he had to put in his time politically. His time was spent working for prominent politicians in the Bluegrass State and practicing law as well. Wikipedia has more...
Before his election to the Kentucky State Senate, McGarvey worked for Jack Conway as a Special Assistant Attorney General of Kentucky. He also worked for U.S. Representative Ben Chandler and the law firm Frost Brown Todd.[5] McGarvey practices law at Morgan Pottinger McGarvey, a firm his grandfather founded.[6]
Notable Media Headlines
It’s been a while since the chaos of the Speaker election at the beginning of this term, but his first local media appearance came in the middle of the tempest. Local affiliate WDRB covered both area freshmen during the Speaker battle. McGarvey commented…
But no one could be sworn in before Congress elected a new speaker of the House, and it took a historic five days and 15 separates ballots to elect Republican Kevin McCarthy. A chaotic at at times contentious week ended with McCarthy overcoming holdouts from his own ranks and floor tensions that boiled over and tested the new GOP majority’s ability to govern.
McGarvey said it was a long wait but he's ready to get to work.
"It was wild, it was surreal, it was chaotic (and), ultimately, wonderful," McGarvey said Monday. "And to be there on the floor of the House of Representatives — two of my three kids powered through and stayed up — but to take the oath looking at the American flag hanging behind the speaker's desk in the House of Representatives was an amazing feeling."
Unfortunately, the largest headline has become an all too common occurrence amongst the members of Congress. Rep. Morgan McGarvey had to deal with the aftermath of a mass shooting at a bank in Louisville early in his term.
Here is an interview with a local affiliate the day of the shooting. How he kept his composure is quite amazing. I bawled after I heard about Sandy Hook!
Here are his remarks in the aftermath of that tragic event.
On a much more lighthearted note, the breakout freshman star of the Congressional baseball game was one Rep. Morgan McGarvey! The Louisville Courier-Journal covered the game, and Yahoo picked up the story from there!
Morgan McGarvey is relatively new to Congress, but the U.S. representative from Louisville is already sending a message in Washington, D.C. – don't give him anything easy over the plate.
McGarvey, the 43-year-old Democrat elected last November to replace John Yarmuth in the U.S. House of Representatives, had an impressive single in his lone at-bat and scored a run Wednesday night in The Congressional Baseball Game, an annual contest pitting red against blue on the diamond for one night each summer.
Donning a maroon Bellarmine jersey (he earned a law degree from the University of Kentucky, which is outside his congressional district), McGarvey came to the plate to lead off the fifth inning. He took a few pitches from Florida Republican Greg Steube before making contact on a line drive into left field − a single.
Hopefully McGarvey generates more of the first headline during his tenure. We definitely don’t want another mass shooting! The third piece was lighthearted, but it is times like that where members of Congress can relax and realize they are part of a very exclusive club — they have a lot more in common than at first glance!
Bills and Legislative Priorities
Rep. Morgan McGarvey has always been in the minority during his time in office, and he knows how to still be a workhorse in spite of that handicap. Quite a few organizations named him legislator of the year while he was in Kentucky. Wikipedia has more.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving named McGarvey its 2015 Legislator of the Year.[8] The Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility gave him a Leadership Award.[9] McGarvey was named a Most Valuable Policymaker by Greater Louisville Inc.[8] and 2016 Outstanding Young Professional by the University of Kentucky College of Law.[10]
His secret is that he says "Being an effective legislator means showing up, being willing to say ‘I don’t know, what do you think?’ and most of all, listening. The only way to get things done in Frankfort is by building coalitions, standing firm on principle and then figuring out how to get good policy through the legislative process. It’s not always the work that makes headlines, but it is how we make a tangible, positive difference in people’s lives. I will bring this same approach to Congress."
It is an approach he is trying with Rep. Andy Barr, and with many colleagues across the aisle and within our party as well. That is likely why he is in the New Democratic Coalition AND and Congressional Progressive Caucus. He expounds more on his political philosophy in his candidate interview before coming to Congress.
In terms of legislation, McGarvey introduced his first bill to combat student hunger. Instead of ripping away food from hungry mouths like the GOP would do, he sought to expand coverage of free and reduced price meals.
On April 10th, Congressman Morgan McGarvey (KY-03) introduced his first bill, H.R. 2567, the School Meals Expansion Act, which amends the National School Lunch Act’s Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) to allow more schools to provide free meals to every student they serve. This legislation will reduce student hunger by lowering the eligibility threshold for participation in the CEP and increasing federal reimbursement rates for school meals. These changes will reduce administrative burdens for schools and lower the stigma that students face.
“No child should ever go hungry in the richest country on earth,” said Rep. McGarvey. “My bill works toward ensuring every kid has a free, healthy meal at school. Expanding free school meals isn’t just the smart thing to do — it’s the right thing and an important step toward combating food insecurity in Jefferson County and across the country. The School Meals Expansion Act is going to keep kids full and ready to focus, and I’m proud to introduce this bill and join efforts to improve child nutrition.”
The National School Lunch Program and National School Breakfast Program provide free and reduced-price meals to students from low-income homes. In the program’s current form, if 40 percent or more of students in a school or district automatically qualify for free school meals (e.g., through their family’s participation in SNAP, TANF, or a similar qualifying program), then every student in the school or district may qualify for free meals under the National School Lunch Act’s Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) if the school or district elects to participate. The School Meals Expansion Act will lower the threshold for the CEP from 40 percent to 25 percent, allowing more children to qualify for free meals. The bill also increases the federal reimbursement for school meals, making it easier for under-resourced schools to administer the program.
Kentucky has amongst the worst maternal mortality rates in the USA. Naturally, he is pushing for the Momnibus to be passed to help solve that awful problem.
McGarvey also is working on restoring the expanded Child Tax Credit that was active during the pandemic. It helped so many claw their way out of poverty and was amongst the most effective measures passed during that time.
He voted YES on the Bipartisan Debt Ceiling Deal, citing the threat of default was too great compared to any reservations he may have about the provisions needed to secure its passage.
McGarvey, like many others, was aghast at the decisions the Extreme Court handed down at the end of June. Here is his statement on the affirmative action decision, and general comments about the other two.
Like many new members of Congress, McGarvey celebrated the 100 day mark with a recap of everything he had done up until that point. I find it a good way to end this section today, and to say that he has around 4.6k Twitter followers, which is respectable.
Rep. Morgan McGarvey came to Washington, DC in order to fix what’s ailing the nation. He is used to working deep in the minority from his days in Kentucky, so he comes in fully knowing what to expect — that it takes allies even on the other side to get anything done. I didn’t include them except in a link, but he is big on promoting Kentucky based equine and bourbon based industries. It is often those common threads that translate into partnerships later on.
In terms of media exposure, McGarvey had to do what no legislator, especially only a couple months into the job, should be prepared to do in office. He had to preside over the mourning period of a mass shooting. He handled that period well, which will hopefully give him some cache with the local press.
McGarvey is young, and Kentucky is a state hostile to the Democratic Party as it is currently comprised. He is likely to have a long tenure in DC, depending upon how his family takes it (little kids and the spouse always have a say in these matters too). He is already a workhorse for the Bluegrass State in the minority. Imagine what he could accomplish as a part of a majority in the House!
Next week, I profile the talented Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas’ 30th district. See you then!
Rep. Morgan McGarvey (Kentucky-3)
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