Amy McGrath's campaign was meant to fail, that was always the plan
If you’re hearing this from me for the first time then I’m sorry: Amy McGrath, who sources tell me was either a Marine fighter pilot or a mercenary on a submarine, was never going to win her Senate race against Mitch McConnell.
Now if this news is troubling to you or makes you want to yell at me for being a dumb naysaying leftist then I understand that reaction; I want you to also know you’re wrong but that’s okay.
The fact of the matter is McGrath was never going to win because the plan was never for her to win, and I’m not just saying that to be an edgy leftist, or whatever Resistance Twitter is calling folks nowadays, her losing was quite literally always the plan.
Sen. Chuck Schumer and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), which serves primarily to get Democrats elected to the U.S. Senate, threw its full fundraising apparatus behind McGrath right out of the gate.
McGrath got backing from the committee, prominent out-of-state Democrats (Schumer, Joe Biden, etc.) and a ravenous pack of liberals from sea to shining sea to fund her campaign coffers. Those said coffers have brought in at least $42 million.
Being the first person to announce her candidacy on the Democratic side, and being a fresh face that recently came off losing a close race in Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District, gave McGrath the spotlight for just enough time to capture it and never really let it go.
National Democrats got what they wanted out of Amy McGrath, which evidently was someone they could prop up and funnel money into. A Transformer that can turn into a fighter jet and shoot out money if you will.
Not like Optimus Prime or Megatron but like…hold on let me pull up the Wikipedia page for Transformers characters…okay, yeah more like Superion, an Aerialbot, that first appeared in The Key to Vector Sigma (Part 2).
You know, Superion, every kids’s favorite Transformer.
I’m not saying all this to be cynical! Democrats have been saying this was the plan themselves!
The Senate Democratic leader repeatedly pressed some prominent Kentucky Democrats to help him squelch a primary challenge to Ms. McGrath, admitting privately that she would not be a top-tier candidate, but that they could use her to raise money against Mr. McConnell and keep him pinned down in his own race, according to officials familiar with the conversations.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Mr. Schumer expressed confidence in Ms. McGrath, but also nodded at how pleased he was that the race was diverting G.O.P. resources. “The Republican super PAC put $10 million into Kentucky,” he said, alluding to the Senate Leadership Fund.
What should theoretically be McGrath’s biggest backers, hell her future, potential colleagues, never believed she could win at all. Ain’t that just stone cold?
When the Democratic primary ended they let the cat the bag, revealing the whole plan as to why they were running McGrath: force the GOP’s hand so they’d spend more money in Kentucky than in other Senate races around the country, thereby making those races a bigger challenge for other Republicans.
And here’s a similar report from Reuters:
But McGrath has raised more campaign funds than McConnell and poses a threat. That means the Republican Party and Republican-aligned political action committees may be forced to spend more to bolster McConnell’s re-election bid than they may have planned, potentially limiting resources that could go to help incumbents in eight other states who are seen as vulnerable, analysts and officials from both parties said.
I don’t know what else I can say or point to that should make it abundantly clear that no one, not the Democrats, certainly not the Republicans, no sensible person in Kentucky ever thought Amy McGrath was going to win.
Honestly I don’t even think her own campaign has been run in a fashion that makes it look like she wants to win either. Her campaign has been a dumpster fire to watch.
Literally within the first few days of announcing her candidacy she flip-flopped on whether she would’ve confirmed Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, and everything after that has been just as painful to watch.
Here’s something I wrote back in April comparing McGrath’s campaign to the similarly failed Senate campaign of Alison Grimes. If you decide not to read it here’s the main takeaway: running a Republican-lite Democrat against McConnell didn’t work in 2014 so why the hell would it work now?
And it’s not working the second go around! The latest polling shows McConnell beating McGrath by 15-points; he beat Grimes by 16-points and I’m still putting money that McGrath loses by a bigger margin than Grimes.
Now I’ve had this post saved in my drafts for quite some time now but the reason I’m finally pushing the publish button is because of the numerous tweets and online discourse I saw last night after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Many, many tweets saying the best way to honor the memory of the Notorious RBG was to donate even more millions of dollars to the McGrath campaign. Those donating, in my opinion, were better off burning their own money á la The Dark Knight.
The sad disease of liberal brain worms was on full display last night. Liberals will bemoan how Republicans have already besmirched the memory and legacy of RBG, yet I fail to comprehend how donating scores of money to an already flailing campaign does honor her legacy.
I suppose the obvious answer to that is because McGrath is a woman and RBG spent largely her entire career on the judiciary progressing the rights of women, so fine I get that I guess. But was RBG’s dying wish for California and New York liberals to donate to the campaign of the woman who maybe, possibly shot down Flight 93 on Sept. 11, and sort of kind of admitted to it in a recent campaign ad? Who’s to say?
I don’t want to stray from the point too far, so I’ll put a bow on this particular part by saying RBG had a complicated and complex career on the Supreme Court that does include good parts but also many not good ones. In conclusion, the Supreme Court is a reactionary body that primarily serves the ruling class.
Unfortunately, it seems like the Senate Democrats plan to put the heat on other Republicans, by forcing their fundraising apparatus to funnel more money into Kentucky, may have backfired a bit.
Appears no consideration was made that liberals view McConnell as a uniquely evil person and an aberration among politicians. They think he is the ultimate power broker that has destroyed democracy in this country and certainly nothing else bad has happened before he became Senate Majority Leader.
This, of course, is false; however, it can be said that McConnell has intentionally acted as a power broker to fill the American judiciary as he sees fit and intentionally set out to stonewall President Obama, yet no consideration ever seems to be made about the kind of system that has allowed McConnell to flourish this way.
Aside from Trump, McConnell looms large in the liberal mind as being the second most evil person in politics which has caused donors to pour money into McGrath’s coffers while overlooking other races across the country that are much closer, and it seems people are finally making that realization.
Democrats did rake in $72 million last night after RBG’s death was announced, but where that money was earmarked (whether it was to a specific campaign like McGrath’s or a committee) won’t be known until FEC filings. But I’ve got a good feeling that McGrath raked in a lot last night, even if it was at the expense of closer Senate races across the country.
If anything the Democrats plan worked too well! So much money has been poured into McGrath’s coffers that money for other Democrats, who are running in races they stand a much better chance of winning, are sorely lacking in funds.
Anyway, I just want to say that if and when McGrath loses then it means everything went exactly according to plan.
You think you’re upset about that? Well shit Kentuckians didn’t exactly get much of a say in it either, we got stuck with an awful candidate hand-picked by people hundreds of miles away and we’re still gonna get scorned by liberals everywhere.