Honestly, as someone whose family runs ten generations deep in Magoffin County, this is one of the most inspiring results I've seen for the progressive movement. I have admittedly gotten sick of progressive's habit of only winning "moral victories," but if there is such a thing, this is certainly one.
Looking through the results I think that if Booker was from Lexington/east of it, or if this wasn't an election that had been wrapped up early because of mail-in voting, he would have won fairly easily. McGrath's campaign will be insufferable, but having seen the labor and environmentalist movement in Appalachia been cast aside for years, it's pretty inspiring to see the success of people like Booker and Swearengin, even if they won't end up in office. After years in the dark I think Appalachia is going to finally have an organized and vocal (and maybe even somewhat effective!) opposition party.
Is there any reason to believe this was a progressive-vs-not-progressive battle? Was that highlighted in the ads, debates, local endorsements, etc.?
My perspective was that it was an insider-vs-outsider race, with McGrath being the outsider. Booker was local to the state, got all the local endorsements, and was pretty well-known. McGrath was not, and did not get those endorsements, but was heavily boosted by the DSCC and national party because they saw her conservative views as a good bet for pulling away right-leaning voters who hate McConnell, similar to Sinema in AZ.
