Mitch McConnell's challenger Amy McGrath opposes 'Medicare for All,' free college in new ad

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Amy McGrath is coming out against "Medicare for All" and free college tuition in a new TV pitch that strikes a moderate tone in a conservative state in her potential battle with Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell.

The 60-second spot started airing Tuesday and begins with the now familiar story of her military service as a Marine fighter pilot.

But what's catching eyes is her stiff-arm of more left-leaning proposals being touted by other Democrats running for president as well as Senate in the Bluegrass State.

"We need a senator who fights for things like affordable health care, college and technical school, not tax cuts for wealthy donors," McGrath says to the camera. "That doesn't mean free college or Medicare for All, I'm against that."

Instead, she says, Congress should look to improve the Affordable Care Act without getting rid of private health insurance plans. McGrath also calls for students to perform unspecified "national service" to pay for their higher education.

The new spot runs counter to several previous interviews with McGrath in which she spoke favorably about a single-payer system.

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Republican strategist Josh Holmes, a former McConnell chief of staff, said the TV ad will serve only to alienate liberals and won't appeal to more conservatives.

"McGrath has the uncanny ability to piss everyone off at the same time," Holmes said. "This ad will drive progressives insane. At the same time, she has tape a mile long supporting 'single-payer health care' so she’ll never win conservatives."

McGrath, without mentioning McConnell by name, continues in the ad by saying the federal government needs to focus on solutions for hardworking Americans who “play by the rules” rather than the “well-connected who can buy” a senator.

“I approve this message because what good is having a powerful senator if he’s not using that power for us,” she says.

The ad signals McGrath is shifting to the middle and looking beyond the Democratic primary, in which she faces at least two progressive challengers, state Rep. Charles Booker, of Louisville, and Mike Broihier, a retired Marine and Lincoln County farmer.

When asked for a comment, McGrath campaign manager Mark Nickolas told The Courier Journal on Tuesday that the new spot "speaks for itself."

Broihier said in an interview that every American has a right to access quality and affordable health care, and that tweaking the Affordable Care Act to include a public option is the best way to achieve that goal.

"I've been running on this for months and these aren't new ideas that McGrath is coming up with," Broihier said. "My policies have been out there for all the candidates and voters to see, so I guess better late than never for her to put forward some policy."

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But Broihier said he would support a single-payer system, if McConnell and his allies wipe away the federal health care overhaul passed under former President Barack Obama.

said "it's not my first choice because ... Medicare for All is a tectonic shift for a lot of people who are pleased with the insurance they have in good union jobs, who fought hard to earn that coverage they get."

Booker, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, sits furthest to the left in terms of health care, which he often describes as a "human right" that shouldn't be a financial burden. He said he fully favors a version of a single-payer system but has not specified which precise plan he supports.

"When I was diagnosed with diabetes, there were times when my family was forced to ration my insulin just to survive," Booker said in a Nov. 19 tweet. "No one’s life should be at risk because they don’t have money in their pocket. We need Medicare for All."

The debate around health care has eaten up a large chunk of the Democratic primary for president, with various plans to either improve or ditch the Affordable Care Act.

Sens. Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, and Elizabeth Warren, of Massachusetts, are the two most prominent supporters of the single-payer plan, while others, such as former Vice President Joe Biden, whom McGrath has endorsed for president, favor improving the current law.

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The nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation released a poll in January that found most Americans support Medicare for All — 56% — with a margin of sampling error at plus or minus 3 percentage points.

But the survey of 1,190 adults showed support takes a nosedive to 26% when respondents were told a government-run system could lead to higher taxes or delays in care.

The McConnell campaign quickly pounced on McGrath's ad, calling it a desperate attempt to take attention away from her previous support for a single-payer plan.

"As with nearly everything she’s discussed since entering the race, there is a wealth of video where she contradicts her newfound views of health care ..." McConnell campaign manager Kevin Golden told The Courier Journal.

when McGrath ran for Kentucky's 6th Congressional District seat two years ago, she repeatedly said how she favored a single-payer plan but didn't believe it could pass.

In at least four separate interviews reviewed by The Courier Journal during the course of that campaign, McGrath indicated she liked the idea of a government-run health care system but thought it wasn't feasible.

"If we were to start over and have to start over from scratch, say this was 10 years ago — I think we now know that single-payer would be the way to go," McGrath told NPR in an August 2018 interview.

McGrath coming out in the ad against making higher education free is another sign that she is seeking to create distance from the more progressive wing of the Democratic Party.

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Many of the candidates running for president in 2020 have favored either free or debt-free college for less fortunate Americans as a way to tackle student loan debt, which has soared to $1.7 trillion.

Biden had indicated he supported four years of free college during a White House Rose Garden speech in 2015.

"We need to commit to 16 years of free public education for all our children," he said at the time. "We all know that 12 years of public education is not enough. As a nation, let's make the same commitment to a college education today that we made to a high school education a hundred years ago."

As a candidate for president, however, Biden's $750 billion plan for higher education shifts away from that idea. Instead he embraces free community college and increasing Pell Grants for needy undergraduates, including to so-called Dreamers, who are undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as minors.

Reach Phillip M. Bailey at pbailey@courier-journal.com or 502-582-4475. Follow him on Twitter at @phillipmbailey.