Charles Booker is a progressive and ex-member of the Kentucky House of Representatives. He officially filed campaign paperwork on Wednesday to run against Republican Sen. Rand Paul. vowing to winVote against the right-wing libertarian candidate in the 2022 election.
“Today, I formally filed my candidate paperwork,” Booker wrote on Twitter. “Now that it’s official, allow me to reintroduce myself. Charles Booker is my name. I am running for the United States Senate to finally defeat Rand Paul. It’s on.”
Booker Has hintedThis campaign lasted for months and in April, he established an exploratory commission to investigate the possibility of running. The 2020 election saw the Kentucky progressive rise to prominence when he ran against incumbent President Barack Obama. conservative Democrat Amy McGrath in the party’s challenge to now-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. After The Democratic Party MachineMcGrath and Booker were aligned with their money and power lost by 3 pointsMcGrath in turn. was wallopedMcConnell lost the general election by almost 20 points.
Booker is running with a platform similar in nature to his 2020 campaign, highlighting racial justice and calling for lowering prescription drug prices, Medicare for All and the Green New Deal, which he says could help bridge the gap between rural and urban citizens — an objective that he says Democrats have overlooked. Throughout his campaign, he will be focusing “on our common bonds,” Booker told reporters on Wednesday.
“When I stood on the tracks with miners, they talked to me about sustainable energy. I was able to talk with teachers from western Kentucky about how they want to fund public schools fully and fairly. When I speak to farmers, they’re understanding that climate change is real,” he said.
Booker started a non-profit earlier this year. Hood to the Hollerin the hope of mobilizing voters throughout the state. “It’s realizing that people are the most important aspect of democracy, it’s realizing that the voices of people in the forgotten places — the hood where I am from and the hollers in Appalachia and everywhere in between — that those voices are the pathway to a brighter future,” he said in an interview earlier this year.
Booker was not deemed a leading candidateHe faces a difficult task in the race. A poll earlier this year revealed that Paul is the most popular choice. has decent chancesHe was reelected with 53 percent approval from voters. 47 percent of respondents said they’d vote for him if the election were held at the time of the poll, and only 41 percent said they’d vote for a Democrat instead.
Figures from the Democratic Establishment are already casting doubt on his prospects, saying that a progressive couldn’t possibly win in Kentucky.
“He won’t break 40 percent,” former Democratic Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear spoke out for the Lexington Herald-Leader. “You’re misreading the Kentucky electorate if you’re thinking running as a progressive will win.” But McGrath, who progressives saidDuring her campaign, she misread the electorate badly. supposed to be a shoo-in against McConnell — and she didn’t break 40 percent of the vote, either.
Booker is optimistic his approach of speaking to all potential voters — people who voted for Trump, low-income white populations and Black communities alike — will help him win. “It really requires the audacity to say, ‘OK, I’m a young Black guy from the hood, but I’m going to go into the hills in Appalachia and say, ‘Hey, our lives matter. I’m rationing my insulin. Or I’ve had to do that. You’ve had to do that.’ Let’s fight together,” he told the Daily Beast this week.
Unseating Paul would be significant for Democrats in the state, which hasn’t had a Democraticsenator since 1999. Paul is a contentious figure at the Senate. spread baseless conspiracy theories about COVID-19 treatments, disseminating lies so egregious that he’s gotten bannedYouTube
Paul was also a strong supporter of Donald Trump’s former president, especially when false claims about the validity of the 2020 election gained traction with Republicans. He was elected to the Senate in January. Attempted to block Trump’s second impeachment trial by falsely claiming that it was unconstitutional. He’s also admitted to Coordinating with Republican state legislatorsTo pass voter suppression laws earlier this year.
