‘We are going to prove the doubters wrong.’ Booker confronts uphill climb in Senate race.
Charles Booker is aware of the doubters, those who do not think he has a prayer to unseat Republican incumbent Rand Paul in next year’s race for U.S. Senate in Kentucky.
The political evidence is more than ample to indicate why Democrat Booker, who unabashedly speaks out on his liberal views, should be considered a long shot in the race.
Though Democrats outnumber Republicans in the state — 1.65 million to 1.57 million, as of June 15, according to state voter registration statistics — Kentucky is a conservative state. It has not elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since the late Wendell Ford, who left the office in 1999.
Also, former President Trump, who remains popular in the state, endorsed Paul for re-election in April, saying Paul “has done a fantastic job for our country, and for the incredible people of Kentucky.”
Booker probably will remind voters that Trump, during a 2015 presidential debate, said contender Paul should not be on the stage with other GOP candidates, but Trump still is influential in the state.
Republicans wasted no time Thursday in laying into Booker’s liberal views after he officially announced his candidacy for next spring’s Democratic primary election for U.S. Senate.
Mac Brown, chairman of the Kentucky Republican Party, said, “Charles Booker’s extremist agenda has zero chance with Kentucky voters. He supports the radical socialist policies of D.C. Democrats like defunding the police, the Green New Deal and forcing taxpayers to pay for reparations.
“Kentuckians reject far-left ideas like these every chance they get, and Charles Booker’s campaign for the U.S. Senate will be no different.”
Booker said he understands a difficult task lies ahead of him.
“I know that Kentucky has never had anyone who looks like me represent us in the United States Senate,” Booker said at his formal campaign announcement Thursday at the African-American Heritage Center in the Russell neighborhood of Louisville, where he grew up.
“I’m counting down the days before they say the N-word about me,” he said.
But Booker said he and his supporters have “to beat hate.”
He said he knows the Republican opposition wants Kentuckians to think he is radical.
“They don’t want you to know that they are not investing in our community. They don’t want you to know that they are ignoring you while you are falling off the cliff. They want you to think that government working for you is a bad thing.”
His opponents, said Booker, want to talk about his position of defunding police because “they don’t want you to know that they are not investing in our cities, in our pensions, making sure we are safe. They want to distract you.”
He said Paul criticizes reparations for slavery because “he doesn’t want you to know that your government is not ... making sure you have justice.”
Booker said he is ready to help people and is counting on many Kentuckians who are tired of politics as usual to join him.
Unlike many politicians, he is not shy of talking about his emotions. He told Thursday’s crowd and an audience tuning in on livestream, “I love you.”
A big question is whether Booker will have the money to get out his message to people he thinks are frustrated with government as it is.
He acknowledged that he does not like politicians and promised, “I’m going to speak up for you. I want to change the system so no one has to struggle.”
How important is this race, he asked. “ It’s about how we change the trajectory of our future.”
Booker concluded his formal announcement with a prediction. “We are going to prove the doubters wrong,” he said.
