McGrath releases ad blasting McConnell with coal miners in Kentucky: ‘Which side are you on?’

Democratic Kentucky Senate candidate Amy McGrath released a new campaign ad accusing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) of leaving the state’s coal miners behind. 

“It was a ten-hour bus ride,” Jimmy Moore, a coal miner from Pike County, Kentucky, said in the ad. “We were coal miners with black lung disease, going to see our senator, Mitch McConnell to try and save our disability benefits.” 

A group of 120 coal miners took the trip to Washington, D.C., last month to appeal to McConnell to fund their disability benefits by collecting more taxes from coal companies to offset the workers’ medical bills, Newsweek reported.

{mosads} “Ten hours on the bus, and we got to see him for all of one minute,” Moore continues, telling viewers that his step-father and grandfather died of black lung, and that his son also suffers from the progressive respiratory disease that is caused by the inhalation of toxic coal dust.

Our coal miners risked their lives to fuel our country—but Mitch McConnell would only give a group of them with black lung disease a scant minute when they rode 10 hours to visit him in Washington. My question for McConnell: Which side are you on? pic.twitter.com/6dzOZHTKOV

— Amy McGrath (@AmyMcGrathKY) August 23, 2019

Moore also accused McConnell of “letting the coal companies walking away from us, and then, after one minute, he did too,” in the ad, which is currently running in the state of Kentucky, Newsweek reported.

McGrath also appears in the ad, saying that she is on the side of “miners and their families” and that America “owes” miners for their work in the energy industry.

“I learned in the Marines to leave no one behind, but after 34 years in Washington, Mitch McConnell left our coal miners behind years ago,” McGrath said. “The question for anyone in Congress is: which side are you on?”

McGrath also tweeted “Mitch McConnell has all the time in the world to cut taxes for rich people and corporations. But with time running out to protect coal miners with black lung disease, he’s doing nothing,” alongside the ad. 

Mitch McConnell has all the time in the world to cut taxes for rich people and corporations. But with time running out to protect coal miners with black lung disease, he’s doing nothing. #BlackLungKills #SenatorForSale

— Amy McGrath (@AmyMcGrathKY) August 23, 2019

Coal companies were previously required to pay $1.10 per ton in excise taxes to support the federally-run Black Lung Disability Trust Fund. But the fund has had to borrow more than $6 million to pay miners, according to Newsweek.