Team, today the kids and I are celebrating Erik. But I want to take a minute to tell you I’m also thinking about my dad, Donald, who passed in 2018, and whom I miss each and every day.

When I talk about service, commitment, and giving back, I’m speaking of the example my dad set throughout his life—in small and big moments.

I remember how steadfastly he supported my mom as she pursued her career in medicine—at a time when it wasn’t common for a man to be so supportive of a working wife.

Himself the son of a blue collar worker at Red Top Brewery in Cincinnati, Dad pursued a calling to teach. I remember how deeply Dad valued education and exploration, both in and out of the classroom. He’d make us stop at every single historical marker on road trips, and he once drove all three of us kids up north so we could visit McGrath, Minnesota—population 83. (He then threatened to further our education by driving us to McGrath, Alaska!)

He put even more miles on that station wagon driving me to every swim meet and soccer practice, cheering so loud at basketball games that everyone knew who he was in the stands. And I remember how, any time I deployed overseas, he and my mom would watch my chocolate lab, Monk, for me—maybe too well, because whenever I came home, Monk would be 10 pounds heavier. No matter how hard I worked to get that dog back into shape, after the next deployment, he'd gain it right back thanks to my dad slipping him scraps.

And with countless other Kentuckians, I share memories of the 40 years Dad spent as a high school English teacher, and serving the community at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Covington, acting as a lector and an empathetic guide to anyone who needed him. His profession and life’s work was a vocation for him, a service, and a way he expressed his faith.

Right now, two days out from our primary, I’m also thinking about how Dad’s commitment to service guided his politics. As a born-and-bred Kentuckian, Dad grew disappointed by the growing partisan divides in our government and the ways our leaders stopped putting people first.

I’m running to defeat Mitch McConnell because Kentucky deserves better. We deserve leaders who care about making our state a better place and who care about lifting up the people who elected them.

I might even venture to say we need more leaders who embody the spirit of Donald McGrath. You probably feel the same about some of the dads in your life.

Happy Father’s Day,
Amy