Yet as McGrath’s national profile grew after her first ad, she remained relatively unknown and perhaps even a little suspect to Kentucky voters. A native of Edgewood in northern Kentucky, she’d never lived in the central part of the state and had only relocated to the district in June, upon retiring from the U.S. Naval Academy.
(Gray attempted to punch back on this point in the race’s closing days, releasing an ad that hit McGrath for only recently moving to Kentucky. But groups like VoteVets, a nonprofit that promotes veteran candidates and their issues, have slammed the ad as an attempt to “swift-boat” McGrath’s campaign.)
Even before Gray entered the race, Nickolas, who had managed former Rep. Ben Chandler’s (D) successful 6th District campaign in 2004, outlined an aggressive retail politicking strategy to get McGrath in front of voters ― not just on TV, but in their homes, churches, billboards and mailboxes.
Nickolas ― who thought he was out of politics for good until Chandler urged him to meet with McGrath ― said he was instantly swayed by her grasp of the issues and the realities of politics, which she had honed during stints working for Rep. Susan Davis (D-Calif.) in Congress during her time in the military. Most of all, he was impressed by her passion, and he banked on his belief that if they had to chance to meet her, Kentucky voters would feel the same.
McGrath, meanwhile, purchased ad space in every local newspaper in the district and published an editorial detailing why she had chosen to run now, in 2018, and here, in central Kentucky. She piggybacked off the popularity of the initial ad, which gained her thousands of social media followers, to hold QA’s with voters in the district that were broadcast on Facebook. She hit all 19 counties in her first few months in the race, stumping across the region and spending hours, even days, in areas that had once been reliable Democratic strongholds but have trended red for more than a decade.
In a district where Democrats still hold a registration advantage, she has pushed the message that the national party has abandoned its voters here. “The Democrats here feel left behind by the national party,” she said. “The national party, to them, is Washington D.C. They don’t have the same values. They’re led by San Francisco and New York. They don’t see leaders from here or the Midwest. And they’re focused on the wrong things.”
Article source: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kentucky-democratic-primary-amy-mcgrath_us_5b033c22e4b07309e05b6212