Opinion: TV spots highlight the two faces of U.S. Senate candidate Amy McGrath
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette
Monday, March 2, 2020 — I’m sure we’ve all seen U.S. Senate candidate Amy McGrath’s TV commercials regarding her bid to be the Democratic nominee to face off against Sen. Mitch McConnell in the November election.
In the commercial that is airing in Kentuicky market, McGrath appears in an aircraft hanger and describes her experience, first as a fighter pilot in the U.S. Marine Corps., and later as an advisor on national security in the Pentagon.
In an apparent effort to fend off charges that she’s liberal Democrat, McGrath mentions in her TV ad that she’s against “free college” and “Medicare for all” — both of which are initiatives widely supported by many of the Democrats running for president.
In her Kentucky TV ad, McGrath supports improving the Affordable Care Act so “nobody gets kicked off their health plan.” She also says she also supports national service as a way for people to pay for a college education.
At the same time, in a very similar TV ad running during Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC program, McGrath appears in the same type of aircraft hanger setting wearing an aviator style leather flight jacket and with the same fighter jet aircraft in the background.
This ad is very different, however. The ad makes no mention of a single policy position; instead, it highlights that she is running against Sen. Mitch McConnell and needs the viewer’s financial support. She wants to unseat McConnell and “repair the damage he has done,” but she needs donations to make that happen.
There’s no mention that she’s against “Medicare for All” or “free college tuition.”
Would national Democratic donors be willing to fund her campaign if McGrath highlighted the same policy positions she mentioned the in her Kentucky ad?
The two ads are obviously playing to different audiences. McGrath wisely understands that in most of Kentucky, she needs to be seen as a moderate Democrat.
In my interview with her recorded for this week’s “Bradford & Brooks” radio show, McGrath refused to identify herself as a Democrat who is a moderate, liberal or even a progressive candidate.
No doubt that McGrath’s campaign managers fully understand that she needs to show her liberal credentials at a time when she’s courting donations from national Democratic donors. In simple terms, it wouldn’t be wise to appear as anything but the left-leaning liberal Democrat she called herself during her bid for the 6th District Congressional seat in 2018.
While I know the ads have different goals — the national ad is to raise money, the Kentucky ad is to get votes — the difference between the ads lead to the simple question: Just who is the real Amy McGrath? Is she the moderate Kentucky Democrat, or is she the firebrand liberal Democrat that national Dems will be happy to financially support?
In all honesty, I was very impressed with McGrath during our interview and then when I followed her to her meet-and-greet event at Mammy’s Kitchen. But after seeing the TV ads that highlight the two faces of candidate McGrath, I’m not so sure just who she really is and where her real loyalties may lie.
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