Remember when people thought ALG could beat McConnell in 2014? Those were the times.
2014 was the wrong year and she ran a worse campaign than anyone expected. It's always easy to play Monday morning quarterback, but Democrats were right to try to seriously contest that seat. If McConnell were up in 2018 instead of 2020, I'd say it might be worth trying to run a strong wave insurance candidate. Hopefully Andy Beshear runs for Governor against Bevin in 2019 and the DCCC is able to recruit James Gray to run in 2018 in KY-6 (I think Gray could defeat Barr in a Democratic or even neutral year with a strong campaign; Beshear would have a narrower path to victory, but IIRC Bevin's not terribly popular).
If Democrats want to win a Senate seat in Kentucky, here's what they do:
(1) Some Silicon Valley billionaire buys a coal mine in Eastern Kentucky.
(2) They hire a CEO who is photogenic and likable and has an impeccable record.
(3) They operate the mine at a loss by hiring way more people than needed. But the mine is privately held so its actual profitability is not publicly available. Meanwhile, they also go above and beyond EPA standards and go out of their way to minimize pollution.
(4) The CEO, who is now a "job creator", runs for Senate as a Democrat. Cue lots of commercials of him at the mine in a hard hat, lots of workers going in and out of mines, compelling interviews with women saying they bought a new house with the earnings from her husband's great mining job, etc.
