Amy Melinda McGrath (born June 3, 1975) is an American former Marinefighter pilot and former political candidate from Kentucky. McGrath was the first woman to fly a combat mission for the Marine Corps, as well as the first to pilot the F/A-18 on a combat mission.[1][2] During her 20 years of service in the Marine Corps, McGrath flew 89 combat missions against al-Qaeda and the Taliban.[3][4] Toward the end of her service, McGrath worked domestically as a political adviser, a liaison officer, and an instructor at the United States Naval Academy.
Following her retirement from military service in 2017, McGrath entered politics. She was the Democratic nominee for Kentucky's 6th congressional district in the 2018 election, losing to incumbent Republican Andy Barr[5] by a margin of 51% to 47.8%.[6] In July 2019, she announced her campaign for the United States Senate in the 2020 election, challenging incumbent Mitch McConnell.[7] In a close primary, McGrath defeated state representative Charles Booker to gain the nomination of the Democratic Party. McGrath outraised McConnell $90 million to $57 million, but she lost the general election by nearly 20 points.[8]
McGrath graduated in 1993 from Notre Dame Academy in Park Hills, Kentucky, where she played varsity soccer, basketball, and baseball, and was captain of the soccer team her senior year.[9] In her senior year, she received an appointment to the United States Naval Academy, the same year Congress lifted the Combat Exclusion Policy which banned women from becoming fighter pilots.[11]
After being promoted to captain, McGrath completed flight school in 2004, becoming a pilot.[9][18] During 2005 and 2006, she was deployed on a second tour of duty over Afghanistan with VMFA 121.[18] During this time she became the first woman to fly in an F/A-18 in combat for the U.S. Marine Corps. In 2007, she was promoted from captain to major.[20] From 2007 to 2009, she was deployed to East Asia.[13] During this same time, McGrath was also part of Fighter-Attack Squadron 106.[16] In 2010, she served a second tour in Afghanistan with the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing in Helmand Province.[13]
During her military career, McGrath flew over 2,000 flight hours on over 85 combat missions. She also flew in exercises in the U.S., Egypt, Australia, Korea, and Japan.[13]
Return to the United States (2011–2017)
In 2011, McGrath returned to the United States and was assigned as a congressional fellow for Representative Susan Davis's office in Washington, D.C., as a defense and foreign affairs advisor for a year.[13] Davis was chair and ranking member on the Subcommittee on Military Personnel of the House Armed Services Committee.[4]
McGrath said that she saw former representative Ben Chandler, Barr's Democratic predecessor, speak at the Naval Academy, and she had reached out to him for help when she began considering running for election.[24][25]
McGrath won the Democratic Party primary on May 22, 2018.[32] She defeated Jim Gray, the mayor of Lexington,[26][33][29] and a well-known figure who was one of the first openly gay Kentuckians elected to public office.[34] She won all 18 rural counties in the district[35][36] with the exception of Fayette County.[37] After the win, Gray endorsed McGrath, as did the DCCC via their Red to Blue campaign.[38][39] Former Vice President Joe Biden called to congratulate McGrath.[40]
In the November 2018 general election, McGrath was defeated by Barr. He won 51% of the vote to McGrath's 47.8%.[41]
McGrath speaks with supporters during a campaign event, 2019
On July 9, 2019, McGrath announced on Twitter that she was running for the United States Senate for Kentucky in the 2020 election, challenging incumbent senator Mitch McConnell, a Republican and the Majority Leader.[42] McGrath raised $3.5 million in her first week. In her launch video, McGrath stated that "bit by bit, year by year, [McConnell has] turned Washington into something we all despise – where dysfunction and chaos are political weapons."[43]
McGrath's campaign reported raising $12.8 million in the first quarter of 2020, outraising McConnell, who reported raising $7.4 million in the same period.[45][46] As of September 2020, donors had contributed $43 million to the Amy for America PAC and $39.6 million to the Amy McGrath for Senate PAC through ActBlue.[47]
McGrath won the Democratic nomination with 45% of the primary vote.[48] McGrath's vote share skewed towards rural areas: she won all but five counties, with those counties being among the most populous in the commonwealth.[49] Other candidates in the primary included Kentucky representative Charles Booker, who received 43%, and retired Marine Mike Broihier, who won 5%.[50] Broihier and Booker both ultimately endorsed McGrath.[51]
In September, McGrath released a five-point plan for Kentucky involving the federal response to COVID-19, health care, infrastructure, racial equality, and corruption.[56][57][58] On October 12, McGrath and McConnell held a debate. McGrath criticized McConnell's response to the coronavirus pandemic, arguing that he should have been able to pass an additional relief bill over Democratic objections, as was done with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.[59]
On November 3, McGrath lost to McConnell by a margin of nearly 20 percentage points.[60][61][8]
Political positions
In her 2018 House and 2020 Senate races, McGrath has identified herself as a moderate Democrat.[62] McGrath considers herself a fiscal conservative.[21] Left-leaning news outlets, including Rolling Stone, have criticized McGrath for being too conservative,[63][64][65] as have her progressive primary opponents, Charles Booker and Mike Broihier. McGrath has stated "I want to do what's best for Kentucky, and when President Trump has good ideas, I'm going to be for them. To me it's not about your political party, it's not about wearing a red jersey or blue jersey."[66]
Healthcare
McGrath supports the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and efforts to preserve and improve it. She has said "we have a very complex health care system in America and right now we have the Affordable Care Act, that just came into effect a few years ago. ... I believe, as with every major piece of legislation in this country, we should try to make it work." She supports a public option for health care, similar to the insurance plan offered to military veterans, and supports allowing people over 55 to opt-in to Medicare.[67][68] McGrath opposes Medicare for All, saying that she prefers to improve on the ACA and that she opposes the abolition of private health insurance. During her 2018 House campaign, she had indicated she liked the idea of single-payer healthcare plans, but thought they just were not feasible.[69]
Economy
McGrath opposed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.[70] She favored making permanent the temporary tax cuts for the middle class contained in the bill.[71]
McGrath supports investing in infrastructure in eastern Kentucky to offset the economic impacts of the coal industry’s continuing decline.[66] She has specifically focused on the need to bring high-speed broadband Internet to rural areas that currently lack it.[72]
Environment
McGrath said that climate change "disrupt[s] the environment" and harms the economy.[71] She has also called it an issue of national security, and has stated "our military is already testing, adapting, and researching how to operate and succeed in these rapidly changing environments" brought on by climate change. However, she has promised not to support "legislation that doesn’t have a plan for keeping jobs around and supporting our communities."[72]
Guns
McGrath has stated her support for the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms, noting she "went to combat with a 9 millimeter strapped to my chest and a 20 millimeter cannon on the front of my jet."[73] She favors stronger background checks on firearm sales, as well as "banning sales to those on terror watch lists, and continuing federal research on the gun violence epidemic."[71]
Race relations
At an August 2020 meeting with Black church leaders, McGrath stated support of widespread policing reforms, including federal funding for body cameras, requiring independent investigations into officer-involved shootings, and creating a national database of police officers who are fired for misconduct.[74] She supports national standards including banning chokeholds, banning no-knock search warrants in federal drug cases and supporting independent investigations when warranted.[72] At a meeting with protestors in the Breonna Taylor case, McGrath called to "tackle the systemic racism" in the US and called for more details on Taylor's case to be released to the public.[75]
Immigration
McGrath has called for comprehensive immigration reform. McGrath opposes building a physical barrier or wall along the entire US border with Mexico, saying it would be "very expensive" and not be effective, and "it would take decades to build and then you can just defeat it with a ladder. We can secure our border with better technology" such as drone patrols.[66] In a debate on KET during the Democratic primary of her 2018 campaign, McGrath displayed a willingness to compromise on immigration issues.[76] She opposes abolishing Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.[71]
Coronavirus response
As of October 2020, McGrath supports an additional round of coronavirus stimulus funding, including another round of stimulus checks to individuals, and aid to state and local governments that are facing budget shortfalls. She has criticized the response of the Trump administration and Congress to the pandemic, stating they were not honest about the severity of the situation early on.[72]
Other domestic issues
McGrath opposes late-term abortions. In 2019 she favored the status quo concerning abortion restrictions, saying "there are [currently] enough restrictions on abortion and they're reasonable."[66]
McGrath opposes free college tuition paid for by the government.[69] She does not support defunding the police.[77]
McGrath supports term limits.[78] Specifically, a representative of her 2020 campaign said McGrath "strongly" supports a limit of two terms in the Senate. In the primary, many of the Senators who backed McGrath have spent more than two terms in the Senate. Some of the Senators who backed Charles Booker have not.[79]
Foreign policy
In 2016, McGrath authored an editorial for Foreign Policy magazine, calling for a thorough investigation of the decision-making process that the U.S. government took leading up to the Iraq War, similar to the British Chilcot Report. She cited the "seven investigations, ... 33 hearings, and ... almost $7 million examining every facet of the disaster in Benghazi, Libya, in which four Americans were killed," and contrasted it with the "4,806 American and coalition members deaths and 32,246 wounded" and estimated $3 trillion spent during the Iraq War, without any investigation.[80]
McGrath has stated that "the major concern for the security of our nation remains the threat of a nuclear device in the hands of a violent non-state actor — so we must be relentless when it comes to seeking nuclear nonproliferation around the world."[72]
At the age of 12, McGrath wrote to her representative and both of her senators to ask why women were not allowed to become fighter pilots.[81] Neither Mitch McConnell nor Wendell Ford replied,[82] and her congressman provided a condescending reply, so McGrath wrote to every member of the House Armed Services Committee asking for a change in the law.[9][81] Rep. Pat Schroeder wrote back, encouraging her to keep working towards her dreams, and said that Congress was working on the issue.[18][81]
In 2009, McGrath married now-retired naval Lieutenant Commander Erik Henderson. The couple have three children. Henderson is a lifelong Republican.[83] The family lives in Georgetown, Kentucky.[84]
In April 2017, McGrath's father died of cancer at the age of 76.[5][12]
Honors and awards
McGrath has received the following awards and recognition.[13]
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