LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Former state Rep. Charles Booker is running for the U.S. Senate in hopes of ousting Republican incumbent Rand Paul, his campaign said.
The campaign issued a media advisory early Thursday morning, saying the announcement will come at noon Thursday at the Kentucky Center for African American Heritage in west Louisville, where Booker grew up.
Booker hopes to unseat Paul of Bowling Green, an ophthalmologist who has held the seat since 2011. Paul has said Booker is too liberal for Kentucky, claiming that Kentuckians won’t accept his views on defunding police and making reparations for slavery.
Booker is considered the front-runner in next spring’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, but would face an uphill battle in a potential general election against Paul in a state that went for former President Donald Trump by 26 percentage points in 2020.
Booker’s entry into the race has felt inevitable since his 2020 campaign fell short in the primary after a late surge of momentum. He has teased at his potential U.S. Senate bid for months, first indicating his potential candidacy on KET in March, then forming an exploratory committee in April, before officially announcing his candidacy Thursday.
It is unclear how much money the campaign’s stutter-steps have brought in, as his exploratory committee has not had to publicly disclose its receipts. In May, the exploratory committee announced that it had raised $500,000 in its first month and Booker has around $90,000 left over from his first Senate campaign in a separate account called Booker for the People. The account has not had to file a report since April, so it is unclear whether the money is already part of the $500,000 Booker raised.
Booker came on strong last year in the Democratic primary election for U.S. Senate against former Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath, but lost. He captured 42.7 percent of the vote to 45.4 percent for McGrath, who then lost to Republican incumbent Mitch McConnell in the general election by nearly 20 percentage points.
Booker was a member of the state House of Representatives from 2019 to 2021.
Ruth Gao of Louisville announced Wednesday by social media that she is running in the 2022 Democratic primary election election in hopes of becoming the first millennial woman in the U.S. Senate.
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