Amy McGrath, a Democrat and U.S. Marine Corps veteran, is setting her sights on representing Kentucky in the U.S. Senate to replace outgoing Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell.
McGrath, who previously ran against McConnell for the same seat in 2020 and lost by approximately 20 percentage points, announced her candidacy on Oct. 6 as a rebuke of McConnell’s performance in Congress coupled with the current state and trajectory of the Trump administration.
The first woman to fly in an F/A-18 in combat for the Marines and do it worldwide spoke with Military.com following the announcement of her candidacy, saying that Kentuckians are seeking different results than what they’re seeing now from the federal government—notably in response to health care cuts and President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
“I think a lot of people around the country and certainly here in Kentucky are ticked off and angry about the way our country’s headed right now, and I’m one of them,” McGrath said. “I think what we’re seeing from this president is dangerous and not normal. And what we’ve seen from politicians in Washington in the past six months really hurts my state, my neighbors, my fellow Kentuckians.
“When I look at this open Kentucky Senate seat, I think my state deserves a senator with decency and courage who will be a voice. I kind of look at it as, this is something I know how to do. I’ve served my country in uniform, I’ve done hard things in the past, and I’m battle tested in the political arena, too. That matters as well.”
McConnell Bows Out
McGrath, 50, and Democrats have a tall task to flip the seat the 83-year-old McConnell has held since 1985. The last Democrat to win a U.S. Senate race in Kentucky was Wendell Ford in 1992.
Although the Senate election will occur during the midterms and in an off-presidential election year, Republican presidential candidates have won Kentucky’s electoral votes in every election since 1996 when Bill Clinton defeated Bob Dole.
In February, McConnell—the longest-serving Senate party leader and a major architect of GOP policies—announced that he would not seek reelection, forgoing a potential eighth term in office. Last year, he also stepped down as the Senate GOP leader and was replaced by Sen. John Thune (R-SD).
McGrath said her decision to re-enter the political arena results from a combination of McConnell retiring his seat and the way the Trump administration has not lived up to its campaign promises.
“Mitch McConnell saw the writing on the wall and he left the seat wide open, he stepped down,” she said. “I think people here in Kentucky are wanting change, and we have this midterm—it’s not a presidential [election], it’s a midterm so it’s a different electorate.
“And then the big thing is it came down to this: no one’s better off than they were in 2020 when I ran. And things are much, much worse. If things were better, I may not consider it. But so much has happened and so much is worse in our country that how can you not stand up and be a voice right now with so many dangerous things going on?”
She said her state’s voters have “proven” that they will vote for the best candidates regardless of their political affiliation, pointing to how Democratic Governor Andy Beshear has led the state since 2019.
GOP Opponents
Should McGrath be successful in her party’s primary next year, she will likely face one of the following Republicans: Rep. Andy Barr, former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, or businessman Nate Morris. The filing deadline to run is January 9, 2026.
She called it “interesting” how candidates like Cameron and Barr were once McConnell’s proteges but have shifted their allegiance “to please one man,” referring to Trump.
“I think that there’s enough Kentuckians who are out there saying enough is enough. … I’m not interested in going into the background of a Daniel Cameron, but they’re all racing as far MAGA as humanly possible and puckering up as much as they can to Mar-a-Lago.
“That is what they care about, and Kentucky is secondary to them. Kentucky is a tool.”
Military.com reached out to the Cameron campaign for comment.
“Andy Barr and President Trump beat Amy McGrath once, and they’ll do it again,” Alex Bellizzi, Barr’s campaign spokesman, told Military.com. “Together, they defeated her in what was once a battleground district, despite her millions from coastal elites and endless airtime from the liberal media.”
McGrath added that her state’s voters are feeling the brunt of tariffs imposed by the Trump administration, which she said is “crushing” Kentucky’s bourbon industry and hurting the state’s farmers in addition to the automobile and, aviation industries.
“They hurt people’s pocketbooks, she said. “Day-to-day costs for Kentucky families have gone up, up, up. The price of beef, the price of pork, the price of energy has gone up. Grocery, car prices, you name it. The bourbon industry, our production is plummeting because of this.”
She added: “That’s my message to Kentuckians, let’s get somebody who cares about you. We may not agree on every single policy, but I’m going to be a voice for Kentucky and I’m going to have the courage to stand up to anyone—my own party or this president or any president if they’re instituting or pushing down policies that hurt us. That’s the difference.”
Lessons Learned From 2020
McGrath lost by roughly 20 percentage points to McConnell five years ago, even as she raised more than $80 million through political action committees.
She said she learned from that campaign, which was quite unorthodox due to the national and political climate that was heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Running an “old school-type of campaign” is her endeavor.
McGrath also acknowledged the stakes. Republicans occupy the White House and possess majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives, which makes the 2026 elections crucial should Democrats intend to limit conservatives’ legislative stranglehold.
The Trump administration’s efforts to militarize American cities should cause citizens in Kentucky and elsewhere to heed extreme caution, she added.
“[Next year’s elections are] extremely vital,” McGrath said. “Look at all the stuff that’s happening, the weaponization of government against political opponents—something I thought I would never see in my lifetime, the politicization of our military—these centrally planned tariffs that are attacks on people. That’s supposed to be the control of Congress in the Constitution, not the presidency.
“We’re having military patrols in U.S. cities, police raids on homes of Americans, the government taking control of private companies, the concentration of power into one person right now, these mass detentions without due process, our politicization of our intelligence. … I think that a lot of people are fearful and worried, and in times like that, I’m somebody who needs to stand up because I believe in our country and I believe in our democracy. My whole life has been about protecting our democracy.”
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