2014 KY Senate debate: on Civil Rights


Alison Grimes: Supports allowing gay marriage

Grimes also repeated her support for allowing gay marriage, acknowledging that not all of Kentucky agrees with her "philosophy" but saying "my hope is that we can move forward."
Source: Lexington Herald Leader on 2014 Kentucky Senate race Sep 25, 2014

Alison Grimes: AdWatch: VAWA and equal pay for women

Kentucky Democratic Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes is hitting Sen. Mitch McConnell on women's issues in her newest ad, the latest in a series featuring regular Kentucky citizens: Ilene Woods of Lynch KY asks McConnell why he voted twice against the Violence Against Women Act and "against enforcing equal pay for women." After a moment of silence, Grimes says, "I can never get him to answer this one either." She adds, to McConnell: "I approved this message, because senator, you must be forgetting that over half the voters in Kentucky are women like Ilene."

The charge that McConnell opposed the Violence Against Women Act and equal pay legislation is central to Grimes' pitch to female voters. McConnell's team has pushed back, arguing that he was originally a co-sponsor of the bill and only voted against it twice because he felt one changed version of the bill went too far, and because once it was attached to a ban on assault weapons.

Source: The Hill AdWatch on 2014 Kentucky Senate race Jul 30, 2014

Mitch McConnell: I co-sponsored VAWA but final version went too far

Kentucky Democratic Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes is hitting Sen. Mitch McConnell on women's issues in her newest ad, the latest in a series featuring regular Kentucky citizens: Ilene Woods of Lynch KY asks McConnell why he voted twice against the Violence Against Women Act and "against enforcing equal pay for women." After a moment of silence, Grimes says, "I can never get him to answer this one either." She adds, to McConnell: "I approved this message, because senator, you must be forgetting that over half the voters in Kentucky are women like Ilene."

The charge that McConnell opposed the Violence Against Women Act and equal pay legislation is central to Grimes' pitch to female voters. McConnell's team has pushed back, arguing that he was originally a co-sponsor of the bill and only voted against it twice because he felt one changed version of the bill went too far, and because once it was attached to a ban on assault weapons.

Source: The Hill weblog on 2014 Kentucky Senate race Jul 30, 2014

Alison Grimes: Both supportive and apprehensive about marriage equality

Grimes appears to be playing it safe on marriage equality in the wake of a federal judge's ruling that the state's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. When asked to comment about the judge's decision striking down the ban, Grimes seemed both supportive and apprehensive about marriage equality: "While I don't believe any church should be forced to recognize anything that is inconsistent with their teachings, my husband and I have been married for seven years, and I believe others should have the opportunity to make that same commitment," Grimes wrote by email.

Grimes' campaign issued a virtually identical statement in February when the same federal judge ruled that Kentucky must recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. This isn't the first time Grimes has seemed reluctant to discuss the issue: In August, she declined to express her views on marriage equality in an interview with Politico. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), whom Grimes is attempting to unseat, opposed the ruling.

Source: Huffington Post on 2014 Kentucky Senate race Jul 1, 2014

Matt Bevin: Why not define marriage as a parent marrying their child?

Bevin suggested that legalizing same-sex marriages could lead to marriages between a parent and child: "If it's all right to have same-sex marriages, why not define a marriage--because at the end of the day a lot of this ends up being taxes and who can visit who in the hospital and there's other repressions and things that come with it--so a person may want to define themselves as being married to one of their children so that they can then in fact pass on certain things to that child financially and otherwise," Bevin said on a conservative talk-radio show. "Where do you draw the line?"

Bevin's campaign spokeswoman pushed back on reports on Bevin's comments: to suggest Bevin drew a connection between same-sex marriage and marriage between a child and a parent was a "gross misrepresentation of what Matt said. He sees no comparison between gay marriage and incest. He was discussing the implications of the legal rights such as hospital visitations. To imply otherwise is ridiculous," she said.

Source: The Hill blog on 2014 Kentucky Senate race Feb 20, 2014

  • The above quotations are from 2014 Kentucky Senate debates.
  • Click here for definitions & background information on Civil Rights.
  • Click here for other issues (main summary page).
  • Click here for more quotes by Mitch McConnell on Civil Rights.
  • Click here for more quotes by Alison Grimes on Civil Rights.
Candidates and political leaders on Civil Rights:

Retired Senate as of Jan. 2015:
GA:Chambliss(R)
IA:Harkin(D)
MI:Levin(D)
MT:Baucus(D)
NE:Johanns(R)
OK:Coburn(R)
SD:Johnson(D)
WV:Rockefeller(D)

Resigned from 113th House:
AL-1:Jo Bonner(R)
FL-19:Trey Radel(R)
LA-5:Rod Alexander(R)
MA-5:Ed Markey(D)
MO-9:Jo Ann Emerson(R)
NC-12:Melvin Watt(D)
SC-1:Tim Scott(R) 		Retired House to run for Senate or Governor:
AR-4:Tom Cotton(R)
GA-1:Jack Kingston(R)
GA-10:Paul Broun(R)
GA-11:Phil Gingrey(R)
HI-1:Colleen Hanabusa(D)
IA-1:Bruce Braley(D)
LA-6:Bill Cassidy(R)
ME-2:Mike Michaud(D)
MI-14:Gary Peters(D)
MT-0:Steve Daines(R)
OK-5:James Lankford(R)
PA-13:Allyson Schwartz(D)
TX-36:Steve Stockman(R)
WV-2:Shelley Capito(R) 		Retired House as of Jan. 2015:
AL-6:Spencer Bachus(R)
AR-2:Tim Griffin(R)
CA-11:George Miller(D)
CA-25:Howard McKeon(R)
CA-33:Henry Waxman(D)
CA-45:John Campbell(R)
IA-3:Tom Latham(R)
MN-6:Michele Bachmann(R)
NC-6:Howard Coble(R)
NC-7:Mike McIntyre(D)
NJ-3:Jon Runyan(R)
NY-4:Carolyn McCarthy(D)
NY-21:Bill Owens(D)
PA-6:Jim Gerlach(R)
UT-4:Jim Matheson(D)
VA-8:Jim Moran(D)
VA-10:Frank Wolf(R)
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Page last updated: Dec 06, 2018