He represents the first real opportunity for Kentuckians to test progressive leadership. His campaign and progressive advocacy has garnered him endorsements from the Sunrise Movement, Brand New Congress, and Kentuckians for the Commonwealth. During his tenure as a Kentucky state representative, Booker has sponsored attempts to pass all manner of progressive, leftwing policies, such as legislation to restore voting rights to people convicted of felonies, capping prescription drug costs, prohibiting public funding of charter schools, increasing the minimum wage, and regulating public utility rates. Unlike McGrath, however, Booker doesn’t view these as reasons for Democrats to adopt more moderate policies. Both senators and five of Kentucky’s six members of the house are Republicans, and up until former Governor Bevin’s narrow defeat, Republicans controlled all branches of the state government. It hasn’t gone blue for a presidential election since 1996. Nor is he following the conventional strategy of Democrats running in red states by tacking to the right, like McGrath.ĭespite the 2019 election of Beshear, whose moderate platform only barely defeated the then-most unpopular governor in America (Republican Matt Bevin), Kentucky is blood-red. Booker is not a military veteran, like his two main primary opponents McGrath and Mike Broihier. While he does have a law degree from the University of Louisville, he is not an ex-prosecutor and doesn’t come from a family dynasty of politicians (like the current Democratic governor Andy Beshear), nor has he padded his resume by working for corporate firms. Booker’s bold leftwing views and policies, centered on the Green New Deal, offer Kentuckians an option never before tested in the Bluegrass state.īooker is not a typical Democratic political candidate. Early on in the race, McGrath even bizarrely claimed to be running as a “pro-Trump” Democrat.īut trailing McGrath in the Democratic primary is underdog Charles Booker, a young, progressive Kentucky state representative. She openly opposes Medicare for All and supports a hawkish and imperialistic approach to the military. Her strategy is predictable: appeal to Republican voters by acting more like Republican legislators. A politically moderate military veteran, she has elite educational credentials and experience working in D.C. In many ways, McGrath resembles the typical, third-way Democratic candidate. McGrath’s Senate campaign comes on the heels of her unsuccessful run for Congress in 2018, when she lost in a key swing district to Republican incumbent Andy Barr. Following the standard liberal playbook, the Democratic leadership has lined up behind moderate Amy McGrath, once more betting on a “sensible centrism” that has failed time and again in one of the country’s reddest states. And for the seventh time in nearly 40 years, the Democrats are poised to lose to him again. Both men ran on progressive platforms.Kentucky is home to arguably the most consequential figure on the American political right in Mitch McConnell, who is up for reelection this November. Eliot Engel in the Democratic primary for New York's 16th District, while Black lawyer and activist Mondaire Jones leads the primary to succeed retiring Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a Black middle school principal, leads Rep. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. McGrath has vouched for a more centrist policy platform than Booker, who has embraced plans for a single-payer "Medicare for All" system and a Green New Deal energy and jobs program.Ī Booker win would have added to apparent triumphs for liberal candidates in congressional primaries last week. While McGrath had support from Senate Democrats' campaign arm and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Booker earned late endorsements from liberal stalwarts such as Sens. As the coronavirus pandemic led certain states to expand voting by mail to promote safety, Kentucky expected roughly 800,000 votes by mail - many of them cast days before the election, according to The Washington Post. In the Democratic Senate primary, Booker fared significantly better among voters who cast their ballots in person than those who did so by mail.
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