Gov. Andy Beshear (D. KY)
Some big news today out Kentucky:
Gov. Andy Beshear endorsed fellow Democrat Amy McGrath Monday in her race against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a decades-long fixture in Kentucky politics whom McGrath hopes to defeat in the November election.
"In these uncertain times in our commonwealth, we need leaders who have the character and vision to lead Kentucky through this crisis and bring us out the other side stronger," Beshear, who has spearheaded the state's management of the coronavirus pandemic, said in a statement.
"Amy McGrath embodies our Kentucky values of family, faith, service and caring for our neighbors, and I know those values will drive everything she does in Washington," he continued. "She will fight for our teachers, protect Kentuckians’ pensions and work for Kentucky families. I’m proud to endorse her as the next U.S. senator from Kentucky."
It’s expected but good to keep momentum up for McGrath’s campaign. Especially since Moscow Mitch is telling is telling his constituents and the whole country to fuck off:
McConnell's tweet came after the GOP-introduced "skinny" package was brought to the Senate floor for a vote on Thursday. The package needed a total of 60 votes to pass the chamber, though it ultimately failed to move forward in a vote of 52 to 47. Although the vote was mostly split down party lines, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul crossed the aisle to vote with his Democratic counterparts.
The bill had been a much more stripped back package than previous proposals. With a price tag of just $500 billion, it was half the amount of the GOP's July-introduced proposal, the HEALS Act. That proposal has remained stalled on Capitol Hill, with initial negotiations leading to a deadlock between the White House and top Democrats that eventually collapsed altogether. It was also more than $2.5 trillion shy of the Democratic-backed HEROES Act, which many have pointed out was passed by the House of Representatives in May and has sat on McConnell's desk for more than 100 days, as he has refused to bring it to the Senate floor for a vote.
The proposal had sought to extend the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) as well as enhanced unemployment benefits at a rate of $300 per week. It also included funding for schools and childcare and coronavirus testing and vaccine distribution, as well as a provision allowing for liability protections. However, while some of those things were controversial, perhaps most controversial was not what the package included, but what it did not include. The newest GOP proposal failed to include any local and state aid, which Democrats have argued is needed, and despite having established bipartisan support, it did not include a provision allowing for a second stimulus payment, something that drew outrage from the American people on social media.
Meanwhile, McGrath has been registering voters:
United States Senate candidate Amy McGrath hosted a voter registration event at Irvine McDowell Park, next to Eastern Kentucky University, on Saturday, Sept. 12.
The event was the second in a series of stops at universities across Kentucky on Saturday, with the first being Morehead State University, followed by stops at Murray State University and Western Kentucky University after her visit to EKU.
The goal of the event was to connect with college students and community members in Richmond and to encourage people to register to vote in the upcoming election.
Unraveling her plans for Kentucky:
The candidate went on to talk about Kentucky’s need for more infrastructure. “I’m not just talking about roads, bridges, dams,” McGrath explained. “We have to look at broadband as greater good and that is something that can help rural Kentucky because no business is going to want to come to a county, whether it is manufacturing or any other business that can’t talk to the modern world.” Attempting to bring more jobs to rural Kentucky is also on her agenda.
Healthcare reform also falls under the category of her new policies. McGrath said she would want to sure up the Affordable Care Act. “We’ve lost many hospitals in the last few years. We’ve got to help, and that’s part of my plan,” McGrath said.
Protecting the United States Postal Service, providing universal Preschool for children, and legalizing medical marijuana would also be part of McGrath’s plan. “It would help our farmers, it would help our veterans. The American Legion has said it would help veterans with PTSD,” McGrath explained.
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Also, she’s been hitting Mitch back on this:
Democrat and retired Marine Amy McGrath said it's "desperate" for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to attack a comment she made in late 2017 comparing the shock she felt after President Donald Trump's election to how she felt after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
"Mitch McConnell is up with an ad (on this solemn day) questioning my patriotism regarding 9/11 after I deployed 3 times to combat and was strapped into an F-18 on a runway defending America on the actual 9/11...think about how desperate that is," McGrath tweeted Friday, which marked the 19th anniversary of the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in America.
McGrath's comments came the day after McConnell's reelection campaign released a political ad that slammed the senator's opponent in the upcoming November election for a remark she made nearly three years ago when she was running for U.S. Rep. Andy Barr's seat in the House of Representatives.
Even Biden’s been trashing Moscow Mitch:
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Sunday slammed President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for standing in the way of the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).
Biden and Democratic lawmakers on Sunday marked the 26th anniversary of the law's passage by hailing the measure and calling on Republican leadership to pass a reauthorization. Biden called the VAWA one of the legislative accomplishments he is "most proud" of.
“Each time VAWA has been reauthorized, with the support of strong leadership and the tireless work of advocates, Congress came together with bipartisan majorities to strengthen and expand protections. But President Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell have decided to block the most recent VAWA reauthorization, because it would close the so-called ‘boyfriend loophole’ and prevent abusive dating partners from buying a gun,” Biden said in a statement.
By the way, McGrath is willing to tie herself to Biden on this:
McGrath said putting a price on carbon appears to be an effective tool to combat climate change and has bipartisan appeal, but she said she would want to make sure it didn’t hurt “middle-class and working-class families.”
She likes the jobs and infrastructure aspects of Biden’s plan, she said, but believes that coal is still essential and Biden should focus more on helping fossil-fuel dependent communities make an economic transition.
“We have a debt to pay to our coal communities, and legislation needs to account for that directly,” McGrath said.
Let’s keep up the momentum to flip Kentucky Blue. Click below to donate and get involved with McGrath and Biden’s campaigns:
Amy McGrath
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