By Connor Allen, U of L College Democrats:

The Senate election in Kentucky may possibly be the marquee race of the 2014 midterm cycle. Alison Grimes and Mitch McConnell are locked in a close race, which could conceivably decide which party will control the Senate for the next two years, and possibly longer.

I’m sure that you have heard all the campaign rhetoric, the talking points, the scripted responses of both candidates, and seen the (mostly) ridiculous ads that have been plaguing the airwaves the past few months. If you’re like me, you know you have about as much chance of actually understanding the complexities of a campaign and policy through the campaigns’ rhetoric as you do emigrating to North Korea. Therefore, my argument that you should vote for Alison Lundergan Grimes on November 4th is not going to be just a recycling of talking points, and is not going to be an exaltation of Alison Grimes. I want to be as real with you as possible, so stick with me all the way through.

Alison Grimes is the 35 year old Kentucky Secretary of State, former Lexington attorney. She is the daughter of Jerry Lundergan, the former head of the Kentucky Democratic Party, and a big name behind the scenes in Kentucky Democratic Politics. The Kentucky Secretary of State has little to do with impactful policy, so I won’t delve into her time as Secretary of State.

I’m not going to tell you Alison Grimes is a perfect candidate. In fact, she has a number of flaws. Based on her resume, it is clear that she lacks significant experience which you would like to see in a United States Senator. She sticks to talking points and campaign rhetoric when posed with difficult questions, often much to the frustration of her Democratic base. And finally, she has run a number of misleading ads against Mitch McConnell (although to be fair he and his allies have run more against her).

But you should still vote for her.

Why? Mainly because a Republican controlled Senate AND House of Representatives should scare the living **** out of you. But also because 76-year old and 30-year incumbent Mitch McConnell is the antithesis of everything that a decent human being should stand for, and is the definition of an old crony Washington corrupt politician. His whole goal in life has been to accumulate as much personal power in the Senate as possible, without any regard to the actual impact of his policies on the people of Kentucky and the United States. You can see it reflected in his actions and policies as a Untied States Senator. He is against equal marriage, doesn’t believe in man-made climate change (seriously?), doesn’t care for the poor whatsoever, is willing to outright LIE to Kentucky voters (i.e. Kynect is “just a website”).

This is the same McConnell who ran ads saying he sponsored the Violence Against Women Act, while repeatedly voting against it. The Same McConnell who engineered Republican obstructionism to ANYTHING Democrats have proposed, and then threatened any Republican who wanted to vote their conscience. The same McConnell who has decided it is more important to put the interests of the Republican Party before the interests of the people of Kentucky and the United States. The same McConnell who has made millions of dollars since entering office, but still believes that $7.25 is a living wage and that even those under the poverty line should have their government assistance cut, although around 20 percent of Kentuckians live in poverty.

I encourage you to go online (or the newspaper but I know that is a crapshoot) and read as much on the election as possible before November 4th so you can make the best decision for yourselves. Alison Grimes is a moderate Democrat, who, despite her flaws, will put the interests of Kentucky before her personal interests and those of the Democratic Party. And she isn’t Mitch McConnell, which alone is enough reason to vote for her.