no wonder Democrats are in such lousy shape...they just straight give up
Uh, they certainly didn't give up in 2014, and McConnell won in a landslide despite the fact that most people (for whatever reason) thought Grimes had a decent shot at taking him out. He's not going to lose in 2020 with Trump winning the state by 25+ points and KY trending even further away from Democrats. And if you think Trump isn't going to endorse McConnell for reelection, you're kidding yourself.
In the end, they'll probably nominate someone like Andy Beshear who is touted as competitive and ends up losing by double digits on election day. This seat isn't going to flip, and certainly not before NC, CO, AK, MT, GA, etc. anyway. Republicans have to worry about a lot of states in 2020, but KY isn't one of them.