Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is expected to hold on to his seat, but his challenger, former fighter pilot Amy McGrath is mounting quite a challenge.
In a recent moral victory, McGrath outraged the most powerful Republican in the Senate in the first quarter of 2020.
McGrath’s campaign announced this week that they brought in $12.8 million in the first quarter of 2020, that figure dwarfs McConnell’s $7.45 million, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.
Some "Scrooge McDuck-sized" Q1 fundraising hauls in #KYSEN, per @drdesrochers
— Adam Wollner (@AdamWollner) April 7, 2020
Amy McGrath raised $12.8M, had $14.7M COH
Mitch McConnell raised $7.45M, had $14.85M COHhttps://t.co/xRz3OFfkm0
McConnell still has a larger war chest, with $14.85 million cash-on-hand at the end of the first quarter, compared to McGrath’s $14.7 million.
In a statement, the McGrath campaign said, “What our numbers show is that voters are fed up with Mitch McConnell continually putting corporate handouts ahead of working people. After 35 years of Mitch McConnell putting partisan politics and special interests ahead of doing what’s right for the country, working Americans don’t trust his leadership and are demanding new leaders like Amy McGrath who they know will have their back.”
But in their statement on Tuesday, McConnell’s campaign shot back, “Kentuckians know that at a time of great consequence, there is no substitute for the proven leadership of Mitch McConnell,” adding that the enthusiasm for McConnell will “only grow as Election Day approaches.”
McGrath became part of the national political conversation in 2018, when she narrowly lost to Congressman Andy Barr. She launched that campaign with a video of her in front of a fighter jet — the ad quickly went viral.
In early 2019, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) reportedly spoke with McGrath and encouraged her to run for McConnell’s seat. There was an immediate enthusiasm around her 2020 run and on the day that she entered the race, McGrath raised $2.5 million — a number that was larger than some of the first 24-hour hauls of some of the presidential candidates.