Booker forming exploratory committee to consider 2022 US Senate run | News

On Apr 23, 2021

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Democrat Charles Booker, whose unabashedly progressive campaign in Kentucky came up just short in last year’s Senate primary, said Monday that he’s forming an exploratory committee as he weighs a follow-up race in 2022 against Republican incumbent Sen. Rand Paul.

Booker, a Black former state lawmaker, continued to tout themes of racial and economic justice, universal access to health care and environmental activism in taking a big step toward challenging Paul — a libertarian-leaning conservative and ally of former President Donald Trump.

“I said before that our work isn’t done, and the challenges that we face are bigger than any one election,” Booker told WDRB News.

Booker’s announcement is a step short of officially launching his candidacy, but he’s long been seen as a leading Democrat prospect for the 2022 Senate race in Kentucky. Forming an exploratory committee allows Booker to poll, travel the state, make phone calls and fundraise while testing the waters without officially declaring himself as a candidate.

Since his narrow loss to McGrath, Booker has been criss-crossing the state through his advocacy group, “Hood to the Holler,” named after his campaign slogan that highlighted the common interests of urban Democrats in the cities and middle- and low-income people in the mountains of eastern Kentucky

He was also front and center in the social justice marches following the killing of Breonna Taylor.

Booker plans to use his social activism against Paul.

“I was getting hit with tear gas, and he was in Washington trying to say that he’s the smartest person in the room and talking about conspiracy theories,” Booker said.

But Booker is facing long odds in a deep red state that supported Trump.

“To me, Kentucky is not a red state,” Booker said. “Kentucky is a disenfranchised state. Kentucky is a marginalized state. Kentucky is a disrespected state.”

University of Louisville political scientist Dewey Clayton said Booker will present a “different challenge” to Republicans than other Democrats who have run statewide races. He said Booker will not try to hide and will, in fact, embrace, a progressive agenda.

“Booker’s not going there, and I think a lot of people really will give him credit just for, sort of, not running away from being a Democrat,” Clayton said.

When asked about Booker during a stop in Louisville last month, Paul painted him as being outside the Kentucky mainstream.

“I think some of the platform of things that either he or the Democrats are proposing are not going to be very popular,” Paul said. “Defunding the police, I think, is not a very popular opinion.”

But Booker hopes to turn the tables and portray Paul as a Washington elite who is outside the Kentucky mainstream

“Rand Paul doesn’t know a damn thing about Kentucky,” Booker said.

If Booker runs, it is not yet clear whom he might face in next May’s Democratic primary.

Paul, who is seeking a third term, was endorsed last week by Trump.