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

[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.

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.

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

[16] In March 2002, McGrath was deployed to Manas, Kyrgyzstan, for a six-month tour of duty, during which she flew 51 combat missions in an F/A-18D in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.

[13] 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.

[1][13] After reaching her 20-year service mark, McGrath retired from the armed forces on June 1, 2017, at the rank of lieutenant colonel.

[22][23] 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.

[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.

"[43] McGrath endorsed Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign ahead of the Democratic Party's Iowa caucuses.

[49] Other candidates in the primary included Kentucky representative Charles Booker, who received 43%, and retired Marine Mike Broihier, who won 5%.

[55] In September, McGrath released a five-point plan for Kentucky involving the federal response to COVID-19, health care, infrastructure, racial equality, and corruption.

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.

[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.

[71] McGrath supports investing in infrastructure in eastern Kentucky to offset the economic impacts of the coal industry’s continuing decline.

"[71] 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.

[66] In a debate on KET during the Democratic primary of her 2018 campaign, McGrath displayed a willingness to compromise on immigration issues.

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.

[79] 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.

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

[1] She 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.