Staff report
A second democrat and military veteran has entered the race for the primary nomination and a chance to unseat Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in the 2020 elections.
Michael Broihier is a former Marine lieutenant colonel, a farmer in Stanford, and a small-town newspaperman.
Broihier released a campaign announcement video criticizing McConnell’s Grim Reaper role as refining the “art of obstruction.”
He says McConnell “throws the rules and 200 years of tradition onto the ash heap of history.”
“While this may have served his political interest, it hasn’t served ours.”
Broihier is a political newcomer but believes his message of unity is what voters want. He decried the “labels” that reinforce old prejudices and divide us.”
“This campaign is going to be a long, hard fight but it is a worthy cause because it is a fight for the soul of Kentucky,” the former artillery officer said. “And it starts now.”
Broihier, 57, retired from the Marines in 2005 after a 21-year career that included assignments in Somalia, Japan and the Korean peninsula. He and his wife, Lynn, also a retired Marine officer, bought a farm near Stanford, where they’ve raised cattle, goats and sheep and grow asparagus sold at restaurants, food co-ops and farmers’ markets. He became engaged with his local weekly newspaper, The Interior Journal, in 2007 and became editor.
“I came to Kentucky to farm,” he told the Associated Press. “I didn’t come here to run for political office. It’s just been this growing frustration over the years that I finally said, ‘Well, it’s time to do something.'”
Broihier told the Associated Press that he would have voted against the massive, GOP-backed package of individual and corporate tax cuts and denounced the detention facilities holding migrants as “horrific and un-American.” He said the president’s use of tariffs in disputes with key trading partners has hurt American companies, farmers and consumers.
Broihier said he would have opposed Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation and would not vote to confirm a federal judge who doesn’t accept Roe v. Wade as the law of the land.
