Charles Booker’s Movement To Paint Kentucky Blue Is Only Just Beginning
Eight months ago, Kentucky state Rep. Charles Booker launched a long shot bid to beat Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) and become the first Black lawmaker his home state has ever sent to Washington.
His Democratic primary opponent, retired Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath, already had millions of dollars in the bank, ads running on TV, and the backing of the party establishment. Booker had a sleek campaign launch video, a bare-bones staff, and little else. Plus, he was running, in Kentucky, on a progressive platform that included a Green New Deal and “Medicare For All.”
But in the end, Booker lost the June 23 primary by less than 3 points. He surged in the final weeks, as the coronavirus pandemic and nationwide protests over the police killings of Black Americans ― including 26-year-old Breonna Taylor in Booker’s hometown of Louisville ― completely shifted the political landscape. Barely known outside Louisville when the race began, he became a darling of the national progressive movement. Even in defeat, he was tapped as a rising political star.
Booker was numb the day after the results were announced on June 30. But a little while later, a new thought entered his mind. Maybe the reaction to his campaign and the Black Lives Matter protests, which led to significant shifts in white peoples’ views on racism and police violence against Black Americans, had demonstrated how much energy for change there was across the state.
Kentucky is still a red state. But Booker’s near-success proved that could change. And on Thursday, he is launching his next act: a new nonprofit organization aimed at building on that momentum.
“It was very clear to me that what we were embarking on was much bigger than a campaign, and that it inspired something new that we could not let go away,” Booker told HuffPost in an interview this week. “Regular people need to win. I think this organization is our way of saying that we did win.”
The new...
