43 Facts About Amy McGrath

Amy Melinda McGrath was born on June 3,1975 and is an American former Marine fighter pilot and former political candidate from Kentucky.

Toward the end of her service, Amy McGrath worked domestically as a political adviser, a liaison officer, and an instructor at the United States Naval Academy.

Amy McGrath outraised McConnell $90 million to $57 million, but she lost the general election by nearly 20 points.

Amy McGrath grew up in Edgewood, Kentucky, just outside of Covington, the youngest of three children.

Amy McGrath's father, Donald McGrath, was a high school teacher who taught in Cincinnati for 40 years.

Amy McGrath's mother, Marianne McGrath, is a psychiatrist who was one of the first women to graduate from the University of Kentucky's medical school.

Amy 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.

In 1997, Amy McGrath graduated from the United States Naval Academy with a Bachelor of Science in political science.

Amy McGrath was a member of the Academy's first women's varsity soccer team.

Amy McGrath received a graduate certificate in legislative studies from Georgetown University in 2011.

Amy McGrath was assigned to Marine All-Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 121.

Amy McGrath was the first woman to fly a combat mission in the United States Marine Corps.

In January 2003, stationed in Kuwait, Amy McGrath flew in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq, where she provided air support to ground troops and conducted reconnaissance and air strikes.

Amy McGrath flew in exercises in the US, Egypt, Australia, Korea, and Japan.

In 2011, Amy McGrath returned to the United States and was assigned as a congressional fellow for Representative Susan Davis's office in Washington, DC, as a defense and foreign affairs advisor for a year.

From 2012 to 2014, Amy McGrath worked at the Headquarters Marine Corps in The Pentagon, as a Marine Corps liaison to the Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development.

From 2014 to 2017, Amy McGrath taught as a senior political science instructor at the United States Naval Academy.

Amy 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.

Amy McGrath was endorsed by Representative Seth Moulton, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, VoteVets.

Amy McGrath won the Democratic Party primary on May 22,2018.

Amy McGrath won all 18 rural counties in the district with the exception of Fayette County.

On July 9,2019, Amy 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.

Amy McGrath endorsed Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign ahead of the Democratic Party's Iowa caucuses.

Amy 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.

Amy McGrath was endorsed by the Kentucky Education Association, a teachers union affiliated with the National Education Association and the largest professional group in Kentucky.

Amy 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.

Left-leaning news outlets, including Rolling Stone, have criticized Amy McGrath for being too conservative, as have her progressive primary opponents, Charles Booker and Mike Broihier.

Amy McGrath opposes Medicare for All, saying that she prefers to improve on the ACA and that she opposes the abolition of private health insurance.

Amy McGrath favored making permanent the temporary tax cuts for the middle class contained in the bill.

Amy McGrath supports investing in infrastructure in eastern Kentucky to offset the economic impacts of the coal industry's continuing decline.

Amy McGrath has specifically focused on the need to bring high-speed broadband Internet to rural areas that currently lack it.

Amy McGrath said that climate change "disrupt[s] the environment" and harms the economy.

Amy McGrath has 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.

At an August 2020 meeting with Black church leaders, Amy 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.

At a meeting with protestors in the Breonna Taylor case, Amy 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.

Amy McGrath 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.

Amy McGrath opposes free college tuition paid for by the government.

In 2016, Amy McGrath authored an editorial for Foreign Policy magazine, calling for a thorough investigation of the decision-making process that the US government took leading up to the Iraq War, similar to the British Chilcot Report.

Amy McGrath was inspired to become a military aviator at a young age, especially after visiting the National Museum of the United States Air Force.

Amy McGrath said that she was inspired to be a fighter pilot when she was a seventh grader in middle school, when she studied aviation in World War II, and her family often visited Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

At the age of 12, Amy McGrath wrote to her representative and both of her senators to ask why women were not allowed to become fighter pilots.

In 2009, Amy McGrath married now-retired naval Lieutenant Commander Erik Henderson.

Amy McGrath was inducted into the Kentucky Aviation Hall of Fame on November 12,2016.