Senate candidate Amy McGrath meets with voters at El Azul in Prestonsburg.

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Former Marine pilot Amy McGrath overcame a bumpier-than-expected Kentucky primary to win the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination Tuesday, fending off progressive Charles Booker to set up a bruising, big-spending showdown with Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Voting ended June 23, but it took a week until McGrath could be declared the winner due to the race’s tight margins and a deluge of mail-in ballots. The outcome seemed a certainty early in the campaign but became tenuous as Booker’s profile surged as the Black state lawmaker highlighted protests against the deaths of African Americans in encounters with police.

It was a narrow victory for McGrath. With 99% of precincts reporting Tuesday afternoon, she had an 11,832-vote advantage over Booker out of nearly 531,000 votes cast. Several other candidates attracted tens of thousands of votes. McConnell, a key ally to President Donald Trump, already breezed to victory in the GOP primary in his bid for a seventh term.

Kentucky switched to widespread absentee voting amid the coronavirus pandemic, and election officials needed days to count ballots. In Lexington, the state’s second-largest city, about 6,000 absentee ballots were thrown out on technicalities ranging from unsigned envelopes to detached security flaps, said Fayette County Clerk Don Blevins.

Since last summer, McConnell and McGrath looked past their primaries to skirmish with each other, and now those attacks will intensify heading into the fall campaign.

Declaring victory, McGrath reached out to Booker’s supporters to try to unite the party for the challenge ahead against McConnell, who has dominated Kentucky’s political landscape for decades.

“There is far too much at stake,” McGrath said in a statement. “The differences that separate Democrats are nothing compared to the chasm that exists between us and the politics and actions of Mitch McConnell. He’s destroyed our institutions for far too long.”

By mid-afternoon Tuesday, Booker’s campaign had not publicly commented on the outcome.

McConnell campaign spokeswoman Kate Cooksey said McGrath’s narrow victory was proof that her campaign is damaged heading into the general election. Cooksey portrayed McGrath as a “tool” for the national Democratic establishment and said the challenger was out of step with Kentucky with her support for abortion rights and “government-run health care.”

McGrath has raised prodigious amounts of campaign cash, capitalizing on the wrath national Democrats have for McConnell. It places her in a position to go toe-to-toe with the always-well-funded McConnell.

Despite her advantages, McGrath sweated out her victory against the hard-charging Booker.

Booker’s long-shot bid surged amid the national eruption of protests against police brutality. He joined demonstrations in his hometown of Louisville to demand justice for Breonna Taylor, who was fatally shot by Louisville police in her own home. Booker gained the backing of leading national progressives as he supported a universal basic income and Medicare for All — ideas that McGrath resisted.

McGrath charted a more moderate course inside Democratic politics. She supports adding a public health insurance option as part of the Obama-era Affordable Care Act and supports expanded access to Medicare for people 55 and older.Full Coverage: Elections

She portrays McConnell as an overly partisan, Washington insider who exemplifies what’s wrong with national politics. She accuses McConnell of undermining labor unions, awarding tax cuts for the wealthy and cozying up to pharmaceutical companies while people struggle to afford prescription drugs.

McConnell accuses her of being too liberal for Kentucky on issues ranging from abortion to border security. He promotes his work with President Donald Trump — who remains popular in Kentucky — to appoint conservatives to fill federal court seats. McConnell also plays up his Senate leadership role and his ability to steer federal money back to the Bluegrass State.

Trump could turn into a focal point in the Senate race.

McConnell led the effort to defend the president after House Democrats impeached him. McGrath has said she would have voted to convict Trump on both impeachment counts. She accused of the GOP-led Senate of lacking “the guts” to put a check on “out-of-control presidential power.”

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Progressive candidate Charles Booker pulled ahead of Amy McGrath on Thursday in his bid for an upset in Kentucky’s Democratic U.S. Senate primary, but most votes had yet to be counted.

Booker led by fewer than 3,000 votes as of Thursday afternoon, based in part on a dominating showing so far in his hometown of Louisville, the state’s largest city, where he garnered 80% of in-person votes counted. Booker also had a lopsided advantage so far in Lexington, the state’s second-largest city.

“We’re going to have to wait a few days for final results, but we are fired up by what we’re already seeing in the early returns,” Booker said in a statement. “We feel like we’re in a strong position to bring this home once every vote is counted.”

Booker, who supports a universal basic income and Medicare for All — ideas that McGrath has resisted — also was showing strength in parts of rural Kentucky.

McGrath’s campaign remained confident that she’ll emerge as the Democratic nominee. McGrath, a retired Marine pilot, was seen as the clear frontrunner for most of the campaign until Booker seized the momentum in the final weeks.

“We are looking forward to tallies of the absentee ballots, which is 90% of the total vote,” said McGrath’s campaign manager, Mark Nickolas. “In counties that have already reported them, Amy is winning by huge margins, so we feel great about the outcome.”

The suspense from Tuesday’s primary is expected to last a full week after the election. County clerks have to submit vote totals by next Tuesday to the secretary of state’s office.

The winner faces an uphill battle in the fall against Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is seeking a seventh term. McConnell, who has aligned himself with President Donald Trump, breezed to victory Tuesday in the GOP primary.

Election officials in Kentucky are counting massive numbers of absentee ballots. The state turned to widespread mail-in absentee voting because of the coronavirus pandemic, while still allowing in-person voting as well. All absentee ballots had to be postmarked by primary election day and received by county clerks’ offices by June 27 — the Saturday after the election — to be counted.

There could have been a deluge of absentee ballots returned just before the deadline. As of Monday, the day before the election, 54% of absentee ballots had yet to be returned, Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams said Thursday.

“We’re on track to have the highest number of votes ever cast in a Kentucky primary election, easily,” Adams said in an interview.

McGrath had the backing of the party’s national establishment and raised prodigious amounts of campaign cash, reflecting McConnell’s status as a lightning rod for Democrats nationally. She portrayed herself as the best Democrat to take on McConnell.

Booker, a Black state lawmaker, seized late momentum amid national protests over the deaths of Black Americans in encounters with police, including the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor by Louisville police. Booker’s slogan “from the hood to the holler” is aimed at uniting Black and white Kentuckians behind his message of economic justice.

Booker received endorsements from Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, as well as Kentucky’s two largest newspapers.

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U.S. Senate Candidate Amy McGrath visited Eastern Kentucky on Monday. McGrath, who is hoping to win the Democratic nomination to challenge long-serving Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, visited Sol Good Bakery and the East Kentucky Dream Center in Pikeville. McGrath also visited Lizzie B’s Cafe and Bakery and the East Kentucky Science Center in Prestonsburg while in Eastern Kentucky.

Fellow Democrat Charles Booker visited Pikeville last Friday. The two are part of a packed field seeking to unseat McConnell. The Senate Majority Leader faces challenges from seven candidates for the Republican nomination. McGrath and Booker are two of 10 candidates seeking the Democratic nomination.

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