Senate Candidate Charles Booker Unveils His ‘Kentucky New Deal’ Campaign Platform

Over the weekend, Senate candidate Charles Booker laid down the groundwork for the progressive campaign that he hopes to use to unseat incumbent Rand Paul.

At a event in Lexington on Saturday, Booker unveiled his “Kentucky New Deal” platform, which promises to be “the largest investment in the people of Kentucky that we’ve ever seen,” and focuses on delivering quality healthcare for all, fixing infrastructure, ending generational poverty and curbing climate change. 

“We’re putting our foot down and we’re going to turn course as a Commonwealth — all of us — to say that Kentucky deserves better,” he said. “We can’t wait for those politicians to do it for us, so we’re going to do it ourselves. We’re going to lead ourselves even if we come from the hood, if you come from the holler, if you’ve seen tough times you still matter. We’re going to lead for our future right now — we’re going to lead with our own deal. We’re not waiting for Washington to come tell us what we want, to tell us what we deserve, we’re gonna lead ourselves with a Kentucky New Deal.”

Booker, the Louisville-based 37-year-old who formerly served in the Kentucky House of Representatives, previously ran for the U.S. Senate in 2020, losing in the primary to Amy McGrath, who ultimately lost in the general to Mitch McConnell. This time, Booker, who announced his 2022 candidacy this past summer, is setting his sights on the seat of Rand Paul, the libertarian who is seeking another term.    

“We are in the midst of what I call the Great Exploitation,” Booker said at the event. “We’re at a point now where industries have left, haven’t come back, communities have been left behind, people have felt so hopeless, they’ve felt like giving up.”

Paul, meanwhile, seems transfixed on bringing down Dr. Anthony Fauci and the National Institutes of Health by continuing to blame him for funding controversial gain of function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Fauci has repeatedly denied Paul’s claims. He also recently voted no on President Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill, which cleared the U.S. House on Friday.

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This article appears in October 27, 2021.