WASHINGTON — Friends of Traditional Banking, a super PAC focused on candidates who support the industry, is endorsing Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., in what it's calling the “most important race” this year for the banking industry.
Barr is the first House candidate that FOTB has ever endorsed. The group made the endorsement in conjunction with the Kentucky Bankers Association.
"He is the smartest, hardest working warrior we can have in Washington for our industry and we know his support for traditional banking by the bills he champions and his voting record which is 100% supportive of our industry," Ballard Cassady, president and chief executive of the Kentucky Bankers Association, said in an announcement released by the super PAC.
Barr currently chairs the subcommittee on monetary policy and trade on the House Financial Services Committee. Several polls point to his re-election contest being a tossup. FOTB called it a "50/50 race."
His opponent, former Marine combat pilot Amy McGrath, D-Ky., has recently come into the national political spotlight as the first female to fly into combat in an F-18 jet.
Barr has received more than $180,000 in donations from commercial banks as of Sept. 10, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Last week, the American Bankers Association launched an advertisement praising Barr’s legislative efforts.
"With the persistent support of the Friends of Traditional Banking, I was able to pass my bill, the Portfolio Lending and Mortgage Access Act, and was proud to work to include this important legislation in the recently enacted Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act, which is the most pro-growth, financial regulatory relief legislation in a generation," Barr said, according to a press release from FOTB.
In July, Friends of Traditional Banking endorsed Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., a moderate member of the Senate Banking Committee and the first Democrat the group has ever endorsed.
