Former state Rep. Charles Booker stood before a packed audience of Louisvillians Thursday night as he told them his bid for U.S. Senate is still in play in a state that voted for Trump by 30 percentage points.
“I learned through faith that mountains still move, and I was taught that we the head and not the tail,” Booker said. “So I decided to step out on faith to say that since we are more than Congress, and Kentucky deserves better than what we've been getting, how about we lead for the change we want to see?”
Starting with Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, a procession of Kentucky Democrats encouraged the crowd to keep pushing for Booker — Lieutenant Gov. Jacqueline Coleman, Louisville Congressman Morgan McGarvey, former Beshear political advisor and state Rep. Rocky Adkins.
“We can send a heck of a message right here in Louisville and right here in the commonwealth of Kentucky,” Beshear said Thursday at the Canary Club in Louisville’s Shelby Park neighborhood. “We can show this country early how big this wave is going to be.”
It’s part of a series of last-minute support for the progressive fighting for the solid red seat. On Friday, Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin rallied for Booker alongside the state AFL-CIO as did political commentator and TV host Joy Reid.
Booker is running an uphill campaign against GOP Congressman Andy Barr to replace longtime Sen. Mitch McConnell. While Democrats are making headway in traditionally deep-red areas this year, Kentucky’s Senate seat is still considered an unlikely flip on Nov. 3.
Early voting is well underway in Kentucky. According to unofficial tallies, nearly 136,000 Kentuckians voted on the first day of early voting — a greater percentage of whom are Democrats, despite Republicans holding a majority of voter registrations. In the last midterm cycle in 2022, just shy of 82,000 Kentuckians voted on the first day of in-person, no-excuse early voting.
Barr too has been traveling the state, although in the last couple days he’s kept closer to his Lexington-area congressional district where Republican Ralph Alvarado is hard pressed by Democrat Zach Dembo. In rallies across the district, he’s campaigned for Alvarado as much as for himself — he won reelection to the U.S. House by more than 26 points in 2024.
Barr frequently criticizes Booker as too progressive for Kentucky, pointing to his support for a Green New Deal, universal Medicare and abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an agency created in 2003.
“If he wants to tax and spend like a socialist, if he wants the Green New Deal like a socialist, if he wants to ban private health insurance like a socialist, if he wants to defund the police like a socialist, if he wants to open our borders like a socialist, if he wants to pay people not to work like a socialist; Guess what?” Barr said. “That's a socialist.”
Booker has not directly dismissed the label, but called it a “fear tactic” to distract from the issues facing Kentuckians.
“Having high-quality healthcare is not radical to the people of Kentucky. It's the right thing to do. Being able to forge your gas and groceries is not radical to the people of Kentucky. It's the right thing to do,” Booker said after his Thursday rally.
This is Booker’s third time running for Senate — he lost first in the primary in 2020 and then in the general to Sen. Rand Paul in 2022 — and is running at a big fundraising disadvantage to Barr. Aside from the millions more that Barr has raised for his campaign, outside spending also significantly favors Barr. Only one political action committee funded by Kentuckians for the Commonwealth has made roughly $3,000 in independent contributions to support Booker in the general — compared to nearly $2 million spent to support Barr and bash Booker.
When asked if he feels Democrats have financially supported his campaign enough, Booker said he’s proud of the movement he’s built.
“So that's why the support is coming, and I'm proud of that because this is built from the ground, and we need more local leaders that honor this type of coalition building,” Booker said.
However, Booker also noted he wishes national Democrats would have caught onto and supported his campaign sooner.
“I definitely would have loved to have seen more support early on, but this is Kentucky's story. You know, we're often counted out,” Booker said. “Trump won Kentucky by over 30 points, and there's a lot of conventional thinking that would conclude someone that comes from where I come from or looks how I look may not be able to win in a place like Kentucky. But we have proven every single doubter wrong.”
