GOP super PAC ad targets McGrath as ‘Pelosi liberal’ in Kentucky

The Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF) launched its latest salvo against Kentucky Democrat Amy McGrath, seeking to tie her to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) “liberal” agenda.

In two new ads provided exclusively to The Hill, the top Republican super PAC accuses McGrath, a former fighter pilot, of having little daylight between Pelosi and other progressives like Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

CLF’s first ad features a clip from a CNN interview in early August where McGrath is saying she doesn’t know “that I’m different from the Democratic Party national.” But in the interview, McGrath goes on to say she’s “just an American” and touts her military service.

McGrath is challenging Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.), who’s represented Kentucky’s 6th District since 2013. President Trump won Barr’s district by more than 15 points, though election handicapper Cook Political Report has the race rated as a “toss-up.”

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The other ad features Vietnam veteran Claude Shaw, who’s earned two Purple Hearts, claiming that McGrath doesn’t support middle-class tax cuts and criticizing her over health care.

“Amy McGrath wore the uniform too, but that doesn’t mean she belongs in Congress,” Shaw says in the ad. “We can respect Amy McGrath’s service, but we don’t have to give Pelosi another vote in Washington.”

Both ads will run on TV in the Lexington media market and on digital platforms across Kentucky’s 6th District.

“McGrath is simply another Pelosi liberal who would work to raise taxes, support a government takeover of health care, and open America’s borders to illegal immigration,” said CLF spokeswoman Courtney Alexander.

CLF has been active in Kentucky’s 6th District and has had a field office in the district since late 2017.

The latest spots build on CLF’s debut of ads attacking McGrath in early August. Those first two ads claim that McGrath supports a “liberal agenda” that would increase taxes on the middle class and accuses her of supporting open borders that “would put Kentucky families at risk.”

McGrath, the first female Marine to fly in an F-18 in combat, countered the attacks in an ad of her own, accusing Barr of siding with Trump and Republicans in Congress “98 percent of the time.”

“After 89 combat missions, there’s nothing a party leader can say that can force me to do anything,” McGrath says in the ad. “Congressman, how about you?”

McGrath has left the door open to supporting someone else for Speaker other than Pelosi if Democrats take the House.

“If elected, when elected, I’d look at all leaders that would step up to be speaker of the House,” McGrath said in an April interview with MSNBC. “Nancy Pelosi has had a difficult job in the past, but I’m very concerned … that the leadership in Washington is really led in the Democrat Party by San Francisco and New York. We ought to look at some new leaders out there.”

But in a May primary debate, McGrath declined to say whether or not she’d support Pelosi for leader.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to say because I don’t know who’s running,” she said.