Thread: Rep. Andy Barr race a toss up

Some history on this district

2012 Andy Barr-----------153,222
Ben Chandler-------141,436
2014 Andy Barr-----------147,404
Elizabeth Jensen---- 98,290
2016 Andy Barr------------202,099
Nancy Jo Kemper---128,728

Now, he is in trouble. Could it be that the voters are fed up?

Transy student on Capitol Hill pushing for DACA program extension


By Garrett Wymer |
Posted: Wed 10:09 PM, Oct 04, 2017 |
Updated: Wed 10:48 PM, Oct 04, 2017


Rep. Barr told WKYT's Garrett Wymer by phone on Wednesday afternoon that he supports legislation that would be a permanent fix for DREAMers while securing the border and enforcing immigration laws.


"We are a nation of immigrants, and we are also a nation of laws. And we should fix all broken parts of our immigration system," Rep. Barr said.


"We have a situation in this country that has done a disservice to people like Paola. So what we want for Paola is for her to have an opportunity to achieve the American dream. And we don't want to have heartbreaking stories like hers any longer in the future."


Rep. Barr said he is co-sponsoring the ENLIST Act, which provides for a path to legal status for DREAMers, who came into the country undocumented through no fault of their own, who serve in the armed forces.


https://www.wkyt.com/content/news/Tr...449518903.html

or statements like this

He stated his belief that fellow Republican Rand Paul's plan to deny citizenship to children of illegal immigrants was a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.

No, it's just a very strong opponent in Amy McGrath.

Amy McGrath

McGrath was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. She grew up in the northern part of Kentucky in Edgewood, Kentucky, just outside of Covington, the youngest of three children. She has an older sister and brother.[2][9] Her father, Donald McGrath, is a retired teacher who taught high school English in Cincinnati for 40 years.[7] Her mother, Marianne McGrath, is a medical doctor and psychiatrist[7] who was one of the first women to graduate from the University of Kentucky's medical school.[10][7]

McGrath attended St. Pius X Middle School, a Catholic school in Edgewood, Kentucky.[7] In 1993, McGrath graduated from the all girls Catholic high school, Notre Dame Academy, where she played high school varsity soccer, basketball, baseball and was captain of the soccer team her senior year.[2] In her senior year, she received a superintendent's discretionary appointment to the United States Naval Academy, the same year Congress lifted the Combat Exclusion Policy which banned women from becoming fighter pilots.[7]

In 1997, McGrath graduated from the United States Naval Academy with a BS in political science.[3][11] While at the Academy as a senior, McGrath was Midshipman Director of the Naval Academy Foreign Affairs Conference.[11] McGrath received a graduate certificate in Legislative Studies from Georgetown University in 2011.[11] At the United States Naval Academy, McGrath was a member of the first women's varsity soccer team.[11] McGrath was a letterwinner on the team for three years[12] and in 1994 made the Patriot League Sport Academic Honor Role for student athletes.[13]

In 2014, McGrath earned a MA in international and global security studies from Johns Hopkins University.[14]
Military career

After graduating from the Naval Academy, at the age of 21 McGrath was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps.[15] In 1999, she completed flight school and started her career as a Weapons Systems Officer in the F/A-18 aircraft.[11] McGrath had found out she didn't have 20/20 vision, which meant she couldn't become a pilot, but as a WSO, coordinated weapons including air-to-air AMRAAM missiles and heat-seeking Sidewinders.[7] She was assigned to Marine All-Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 121.[11][16] When McGrath and fellow Marine pilot, Jaden Kim, joined VMFA-121, they became the first female aviators to join the squadron.[7] During this same time, McGrath was also part of Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 101.[14]

After the 9/11 attacks, McGrath, as one of the more junior WSOs, was one of the first to report to duty at the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar base before the closing of the gates due to DEFCON 3. She was paired with a senior pilot on the flight line waiting for the order to protect Los Angeles, San Diego, and the west coast to potentially shoot down one of the hijacked aircraft, an order that did not come to pass.[2][17]

In March 2002, McGrath was deployed to Manas, Kyrgyzstan for a six-month tour, during which she flew 51 combat missions in a F/A-18D in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.[11][15] She was the first woman to fly a combat mission in the United States Marine Corps.[18]

In January 2003, stationed in Kuwait, McGrath flew in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq, where she provided air support to ground troops and conducted reconnaissance and air strikes.[9][15][19]

After being promoted to Captain, McGrath transitioned from Weapons Systems Officer to pilot after getting laser eye surgery to correct her vision and completed flight school in 2004.[2][16] During 2005 and 2006, she was deployed on a second tour of duty over Afghanistan with Squadron 121.[16] During this time she became the first female pilot to fly the F/A-18 in combat for the U.S. Marine Corps. In 2007, she was promoted from captain to major.[19] From 2007 to 2009, she was deployed to East Asia.[11] During this same time, McGrath was also part of Fighter-Attack Squadron 106.[14]

In 2010, she served a second tour in Afghanistan with the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing in Helmand Province.[11] In 2010, as part of this tour, McGrath was a member of a Detainee Review Board in Parwan Province in Afghanistan.[20]

During her military career, McGrath flew at least 2,000 flight hours, and was on over 85 combat missions. She also flew in many exercises in the U.S., Alaska, Egypt, Australia, Korea, and Japan.[11]

In 2011, McGrath shifted state-side, working as Congressional Fellow to Representative Susan Davis' (D-CA) office in Washington, D.C., as a defense and foreign affairs advisor for a year.[11] Rep. Davis was chair and ranking member on the Subcommittee on Military Personnel of the House Armed Services Committee and has ties via her husband to Kentucky.[6]

From 2012 to 2014, McGrath worked at the Pentagon at the Headquarters Marine Corps, Strategy & Plans Division, International Affairs Branch as a Marine Corps liaison to the Department of State and the US Agency for International Development.[11][2]

From 2014 to 2017, McGrath taught U.S. government to cadets and midshipmen as a senior political science instructor at the United States Naval Academy in Anapolis, Maryland.[3][11]

After reaching her 20 year service mark, McGrath retired from the armed forces on June 1, 2017.[6]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_McGrath

Hopefully Andy will pull off a win, he needs all the help Republicans everywhere can give him. This is a very important seat in Kentucky and in the US House of Representatives.

Originally Posted by Judy

Hopefully Andy will pull off a win, he needs all the help Republicans everywhere can give him. This is a very important seat in Kentucky and in the US House of Representatives.

Why? So, he can vote for amnesty again?

McGrath will always vote for amnesty and it won't just be for DACAs or DREAMERS who serve in the military or just for the DACA "deal", it will be for every illegal alien. She'll never vote for a bill that will end birthright citizenship for anchor babies. She'll vote against every Trump trade deal, she'll vote against every bill we want on immigration, she'll vote to re-install the individual mandate on Obamacare, she'll vote to wipe out the tax cuts. It will just stall everything Trump Supporters want, so not sure what you're driving at or going for here. If a Republican does something you don't like, Republicans usually address that in the primaries, and then support whatever Republican wins the primary. We don't usually vote for Democrats who are farther away from our views than a Republican we might not always agree with on everything.

I don't see Kentucky Republicans being any different. There's a lot of independents who are probably leaning towards the Democrat in hopes of free college or universal health care or other things. I can't speak for them, but Amy McGrath is a very strong candidate, a sports legend and military hero, quite extraordinary background, so it will be a tight race for that reason. It won't have anything to do with what Andy Barr said in an interview a year ago on immigration, in my opinion, because I think the people of his district agree with his positions on that, otherwise they wouldn't be his views to begin with.