(LEX 18) — Democrat Amy McGrath took to social media to decry a photo shared by Mitch McConnell's campaign during Fancy Farm that showed her name and others displayed on gravestones.
McGrath, the retired Marine lieutenant colonel former fighter pilot hoping to unseat the powerful Senate majority leader in next year's election, questioned the use of such morbid imagery after a weekend marked by two mass shootings that left dozens dead.
McGrath tweeted the photo that was being shared, a display during last weekend's political Fancy Farm picnic. The mock tombstones are inscribed with the labels "socialism," "Green New Deal" -- McConnell has delighted in casting himself as the "grim reaper" of Democratic policy initiatives -- but others the names of very much alive people: "Merrick Garland," "Alison Lundergan Grimes," and "Amy McGrath."
Hours after the El Paso shooting, Mitch McConnell proudly tweeted this photo. I find it so troubling that our politics have become so nasty and personal that the Senate Majority Leader thinks it's appropriate to use imagery of the death of a political opponent (me) as messaging. pic.twitter.com/2x5kO5jwPi
— Amy McGrath (@AmyMcGrathKY) August 5, 2019
McGrath noted the photo was shared "hours after the El Paso shooting" and criticized the imagery. The Democratic Party of Kentucky also called on McConnell's team to remove the photo, describing it as inflammatory.
