FRANKFORT, Ky. — The primary election is in about a week. Spectrum News 1’s political reporter Michon Lindstrom sat down with Democratic U.S. Senate Candidate Amy McGrath who is hoping to take on the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in November. 

Q. It’s the final stretch of the campaign how are you feeling? 

A. It’s exciting, people are ready to take on Mitch McConnell and we are focused right now making sure Kentuckians can vote and that’s why we have the 1-800 hotline because a lot of Kentuckians still, unfortunately, don't know how to vote in the middle of this pandemic. We have a website Kentuckyvotes.com to try to help people out. So we're focused on that, we're focused on making sure our messages is getting out there and the final week we’re like let's get somebody to take on Mitch McConnell who can go toe-to-toe with him, who represents our values, who wants to work on health care and education, and all of these things that so many of us know we need to do.

Q. You have a huge fundraising advantage I mean you even out-raised Senator McConnell this past fundraising period. But the major endorsements are coming in for your opponent State Rep. Charles Booker-- Are you concerned at all with that?

A. I'm really proud that we have support from all 120 counties in Kentucky and we have that support since the very beginning of this campaign and it continues on and people are ready to take on Mitch McConnell, so you know my focus has been 'Hey, let's step up, let's make sure that we have a strong team to be able to do that. And, and I know that we do and my leadership perspective is 'hey I'm always somebody that wants to reach out to my fellow Kentuckians and listen to them, that's what I've been doing, I've been doing it throughout the campaign, even during this pandemic we've done a really good job of trying to stay out there as much as we can with tele-town halls and that sort of thing. But here we are with you know nine days or eight days to go to the primary, and we're kicking it in gear.

Q. You have had to shift your campaign due to the pandemic, you can’t go out and directly speak to voters—how has the transition been?

A. I'm not gonna lie it's difficult. You get sort of sucked into the social media world and the in the world of the media when you're not out there as much, but I'll tell you what, when COVID first hit my, the first thing that I cared about was, let's help our fellow Kentuckians. So that's why I started the Commonwealth Common Health Program. That's why we started raising money for food banks, and we've raised over $50,000 from food banks around Kentucky because it was so important, it's about stepping back and like help let's help each other out right now. At the same time I'm not dropping the ball I still have a campaign to run. So, we are still doing that we do as I mentioned, tele-town halls every week sometimes twice a week. I have counsel calls for different individuals different groups different types of groups all around Kentucky, regional, veterans, educators to try to make sure that I'm still hearing from people and I'm still listening, and that's really important. And just, you know, trying to get out there and when I can, in accordance with public health, be and listen to people I think that's so important right now so we've been doing it all, but I'm excited for the governor to open things back up to just like everybody else.

Q: You've been getting hit on both sides--we have ads being run by your opponents saying that you're pro-Trump and then you have ads from Senator McConnell saying you know you're anti-Trump. How do you feel President Trump responded to the pandemic? 

A: The initial response, I think was pretty disappointing. I mean I think Senator McConnell has a lot of responsibility in that, you know, when you look at, Senator McConnell, for example having the highest security clearance of members of Congress, and when did he tell us, when did he tell the American public about COVID-19? When did he first say anything about, well, not until the stock market crashed. And again, a senator of his stature has a responsibility to help the administration and say hey Mr. President, we need to do something about this, we can't have mixed messages, I think there were mixed messages from the administration, you had parts of the administration saying, you know, this is no big deal and then you had other parts of the administration saying this is a big deal. So I think, in my mind, where was the leadership in the Senate. Where was that leadership, and it was, it was not there even when President Trump declared a national emergency. Senator McConnell left town. He didn't think it was important to pass that bill to get people to stay at home. And that was really important at that time, so again it’s just the same Senator McConnell that you've seen all along. Put partisanship ahead of our national security, our public health. It's all about partisanship for him.

Q. Do you think McConnell needs to work to pass another COVID-19 relief bill?

A.  Yes, it's very clear. Governor Beshear here in Kentucky has said we have millions of dollars of shortfall. And let's be clear what this is — this is, salaries for teachers, this is our school system, our kids, these are firefighters, this is really important, these are people that have public pensions who have worked their whole lives and they're not millionaires. These are people who are public servants. And to me, Senator McConnell had no problems bailing out Wall Street almost immediately. That was his focus, lets bail out Wall Street let's have a $500 billion slush fund for big business with no accountability, and no oversight-- that's what he wanted. And then he turns around a few weeks later and says well we ought to have the states consider bankruptcy. I mean, it shows you a complete disconnect, we need to help our state and local governments. That's really important. It's important for the fabric of our community. The state and local governments are in the deficit, not because they did anything wrong but because of coronavirus. So, to me, if you're going to spend all this time and energy and help big business you ought to be able to help state local governments in our small towns as well. I think that's really important.

Q. I want to move to the protests that are happening nationwide and right here in Kentucky and specifically the case in Louisville with Brianna Taylor do you think the police officers involved in the shooting should be fired and charged?

A. The death of Brianna Taylor is a tragedy. And I think, as I mentioned when this first came out, we need a thorough investigation. It needs to be swift, as swiftly as possible, and transparent as possible. And I think that judgment calls should be made to deal with that. The judgment calls need to be made once that investigation is complete. But we definitely you know need to have an investigation we need to find out what has happened and go from there.

Q. There have been calls to defund the police department. Do you think that's a good idea or do you think changes do need to be made to police departments?

A. Well, I think there are definitely changes. And I think it's quite clear that people are upset and rightfully so and there should be some change certainly at the federal level, you know, for example, chokeholds, I know of no police officer who thinks chokeholds are something that we need in America and the Congressional Black Caucus has put forth legislation, a lot of that legislation is very good to look at police practices in America. The idea that anytime there is a deadly use of force, which is controversial, that you take an investigation out of the hands of the unit and have a special independent investigation, these are really important things to do to make sure that we have public trust in the police forces. In addition, better training, racial bias training and we do it in the military, we should be doing it in police forces around the country. So there are things that need to be done but at the same time, I believe we need police forces, we need to have them, we need to have our communities be able to feel safe so I think we have to have leaders that want to tackle this issue and get it done and I also think we need to have leaders to tackle the underlying racial social injustice in America, and I'm talking about the inequality, I'm talking about the gaps in major gaps in education, major gaps in health care. Black Americans are dying at twice the rate of white Americans from COVID-19, we have to address this we have to recognize that it's happening and then we have to address the opportunity gaps and I certainly be wanting to do that in the Senate.

Q. Why are you the candidate to take on Mitch McConnell in the fall?

A. I'm somebody that has served this country and wants to put their voices, ahead of my political party or special interests. I am somebody who believes deeply in Kentucky and in our country. And I've built a team to be able to take on Mitch McConnell toe-to-toe in a way he's never seen. And so, I think we're excited for this primary, we're excited to take on Mitch McConnell and, I've got thick skin, I'm going to be able to take this guy on, and we're going to defeat them in the fall.