Senate candidate Amy McGrath visits Williamsburg

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Amy McGrath, who is challenging long-time incumbent Republican Senator Mitch McConnell this fall, made multiple campaign stops in the Tri-County area Monday.

She started the day making campaign stops in Williamsburg at Moonbow Mercantile, Moonlight Meats, the Butcher’s Pub and the University of the Cumberlands Monday morning before addressing a group of more than two dozen supporters at the Williamsburg-Whitley County Airport.

“It was great,” McGrath said about her stop in downtown Williamsburg. “First of all, it is a peaceful town. There are great people, who really care about the community. They want to keep the culture but also want to develop. They recognize what the needs are for the community and the town.”

During her tour, she heard a lot about healthcare and the need for it to be affordable, she noted.

“There is no alternative other than private insurance options. There needs to be a government alternative that you can buy, a non-profit alternative. I am hearing this from business owners,” McGrath said.

Business owners and farmers are asking for investments in broadband and cellphone coverage.

“We have to invest in that. It is like the roads, bridges and dams of the 20^th century. Broadband and cellphone coverage is the infrastructure of the future. We are already behind in many areas. We will be further behind if we don’t invest,” she added.

After stops in downtown Williamsburg, McGrath addressed a group of more than two-dozen supporters at the Williamsburg-Whitley County Airport, and then left for a campaign stop at Heritage Commercial Kitchen in London.

McGrath has an uphill battle to defeat McConnell, who is Kentucky’s longest serving senator, and she is running out of time with the election less than three months away.

McConnell was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1984 and since that time has been re-elected five times.

A Quinnipiac University poll has McConnell leading 49 percent to 44 percent over McGrath while a Morning Consult poll has McConnell up 53 percent to 36 percent.

McGrath said that she doesn’t put a lot of stock in polls.

“If you look at the governor’s race last year, it was all over the map too,” McGrath said.

McGrath said that the coronavirus and everything going on has shown us that there is a lot here in Kentucky we need to look.

“There are a lot of people, who, for the first time, are looking around saying, ‘Wait a second. Here is a guy, who is supposed to be running our federal government and our Congress and he has made Congress so darn dysfunctional that we can’t get anything done.’ I am going to be highlighting that,” McGrath said.

“This is just an example of the way Mitch McConnell has been the last 30 years. He is hardly ever able to get anything done, and unable to look at what people really need here instead of just the special interests, the wealthiest 1 percent, these $500 billion slush funds for corporations, and then turning around telling the state it should go bankrupt. I am going to be talking a lot about that and reminding people of what this man is all about.”