The Black Democrat taking on Rand Paul – POLITICO

With help from Ella Creamer, Rishika Dugyala and Teresa Wiltz

POLITICO Illustration/Getty Images

What up Recast family! Oklahoma approves a measure banning abortions after conception, a GOP House member acknowledges giving constituents a tour of the U.S. Capitol complex on the eve of the Jan. 6 attack and the CDC recommends boosters for children ages 5 to 11. First though, we focus on a historic primary win in the Bluegrass State.

The sting of narrowly missing out on the Senate nomination two years ago still doesnt sit well with Charles Booker.

In 2020, the former Kentucky state representative, riding on the groundswell of emotion that erupted after the killing of Breonna Taylor by Louisville police officers and the subsequent racial justice protests, came within 2.8 percentage points of securing the Democratic nomination.

Nominee Amy McGrath went on to spend some $90 million only to get trounced by the Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.

On Tuesday, Booker (no relation to this Recast author, though we joked about being distant cousins) left no doubt about his viability this time: winning his latest primary with more than 73 percent of the vote. He is the first Black candidate ever nominated to federal statewide office in Kentuckys history.

But he faces an equally daunting challenge of toppling incumbent Republican Sen. Rand Paul, who is well-financed and is running in a year far more favorable to the GOP than last cycle.

What Booker has got going for him is energy and charisma that is infectious and a willingness to speak about his own pain. He lost a cousin to gun violence and was raised in the economically depressed West End of Louisville.

As he sees it, Kentucky is ready to embrace a liberal Black Democrat trying to build a coalition of abandoned and ignored voters from the hood to the holler those hailing from the inner city to Appalachia. Its also the name of his memoir.

But he also may have to win over his own party. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has yet to release a statement or a tweet about his historic win. We talk about that, plus why he says, it should if it wants to be on the right side of history.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

THE RECAST: Has that gravity of being one election away from becoming the first Black person from the commonwealth to be sent to Congress sunk in for you yet?

BOOKER: You know, it hasn't. It's so overwhelming.

I'm doing my best to appreciate the magnitude of this moment. I feel the humility, I feel my ancestors. I've said a lot over the years in the Legislature and beyond, that my ancestors were enslaved in Kentucky.

I've had ancestors lynched in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. And so to stand in this moment now, helping to break barriers, even in becoming the first Black person to be a major party nominee for the U.S. Senate in Kentucky, to be the top of the ticket, its a big deal and Im proud.

Every week, we sit down with diverse and influential characters who are shaking up politics.

Who should we profile next? Let us know. Email us at [emailprotected].

THE RECAST:You secured the nomination with about 73 percent of the vote.

It comes on the same night that Cheri Beasley won her Senate primary in North Carolina. I mean, there's a long list of Black Senate candidates: Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker are likely going to duke it out in Georgia. Mandela Barnes in Wisconsin, Val Demings in Florida.

Is there something about 2022 that is the year of the Black Senate candidate? Does this year feel different to you?

BOOKER: What feels different to me is the heightened sense of urgency.

I'm not running for office because I want a title.

I'm doing this, because I genuinely want things to change for my family, I want poverty to end. I don't want to lose another cousin or a loved one in the streets to gun violence. And I don't want anyone to have to ration their insulin, like I've had to do as a Type 1 diabetic.

Surrounded by his family, Booker speaks to a group of supporters following his victory in the Kentucky primary in Louisville, May 17. | Timothy D. Easley/AP Photo

I'm telling the story of my struggles, which I think is something that's really powerful for Black candidates. Particularly those who have lived in the struggles that have often been prescribed to Black communities, because it gives us the lens to speak about structural inequity that weighs everybody down.

And I tell this story in my book, From the Hood to the Holler, because the challenges that we are seeing in my community in the West End of Louisville, in the hood, are very similar to the challenges in Appalachia. And those common bonds are not only how we're going to win this race, but it's how we win democracy.

THE RECAST: In 2020, you ran a campaign by harnessing the energy and fervor of the social justice movement following the police killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd and others. You came very close winning the Democratic nomination two years ago. Can you talk a little bit about what you learned in that defeat?

BOOKER: The thing that I learned was that the people of Kentucky are ready for the change that I'm fighting for. I was just willing to step out on faith and give my family, my loved ones across Kentucky, the chance to choose.

So this time around, I'm not a surprise to anyone. We came through the front door this time. And we went from being impossible to being inevitable.

Booker speaks to protesters gathering before a march to the Breonna Taylor memorial at Jefferson Square Park on Oct. 10, 2020 in Louisville, Kentucky. | Jon Cherry/Getty Images

THE RECAST: Do you feel it's difficult to turn activism into electability? I'm looking across the political landscape, like a former colleague of yours, state Rep. Attica Scott lost in her bid to become the nominee for Kentucky's 3rd District. I'm looking at Nina Turner earlier this month, a Bernie Sanders supporter, but also seen as an activist, came up short to help in her primary bid in Ohio.

BOOKER: It is hard to be in a position where you're marginalized and your voice has been taken away or been ignored, to be able to translate and transfer the pain and the frustration into political leadership.

Poverty is a policy choice. It isn't a product of laziness, or moral deficiency.

We are up against a system that isn't limited by party, that is really perpetuating a lot of the inequities that we're facing at the expense of corporate greed and political power for people so it's difficult to get into these spaces.

So what we're doing in this [Senate] race, my prayer is that it would be a template for more regular folks to know that not only does your voice matter, but you can lead for real change and you can win while doing it.

THE RECAST: To win, youve obviously got to drive up the margins in Louisville and Lexington. But where else can you turn the tide in this race come November?

BOOKER: Well, the power of this rallying cry from the hood to the holler is really that we're telling the story of how you bring communities, coalitions, together that really haven't even been considered as possible.

We know we have much more in common than we do otherwise. And so our path to victory is, as you mentioned, we have to turn out folks that we know are already prepared to vote for my policies and for my candidacy, which is a lot of Kentuckians.

But we also have to go to those communities, like in Appalachia. There are a lot of progressives a lot of people that want true progress. Medicare for All is really popular in a lot of communities across eastern Kentucky, mainly because a lot of folks can't afford health care. And they've seen these big fossil fuel corporations, coal companies making incredible profits and screwing them on the back end.

We're building this from the ground up. This is not with a lot of the party support that a lot of folks would have expected. That should change because my call is for the Democratic Party to be on the right side of history.

This is how Georgia won.

We are proving that you can win in places like Kentucky and if you do it in places like Kentucky, we can win everywhere.

Booker at a book signing event for his memoir in Louisville, Ky. on Apr. 27. | Piper Hudspeth Blackburn/AP Photo

THE RECAST: It's already thought to be a tough year for Democrats. Are you concerned at all that the partys headwinds the current occupant of the White House is facing will impact your race?

BOOKER: Well, it certainly is a factor.

It hasn't shaped how we've moved in this campaign, because this campaign was always bigger than all that.

At the end of the day, our pursuit of democracy is not about any particular party. It's about humanity. And it's not tied down to how successful any president is.

Now, of course, those narratives can make it harder or easier at times.

I'm a Black man running in Kentucky. There's not a whole lot that anyone can say that I havent already heard. We already know its uphill because of the cynicism. So the type of campaign we're building is already made to confront and disarm that.

THE RECAST: Youre running in a state that hasnt elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1992. How do you go about convincing folks that havent voted for a Democrat in a long time, perhaps havent voted for a Black candidate to support your candidacy over someone who's got broad name recognition like Sen. Rand Paul?

BOOKER: A lot of the work that I'm doing is going to counties in areas that Democrats don't go. And that includes the hood where Im from.

Now we vote, overwhelmingly Democrat when we vote in my community. But most politicians don't come until it's time to vote. And so the organizing that we've been doing through this campaign and into the summer is really about meeting people where they are, and not talking about things from a national narrative but pulling out the common bonds, and doing storytelling.

I come from the hood. I come from the struggle. I know what it's like to be ignored.

A lot of the people that voted for Donald Trump in Kentucky also voted for Bernie Sanders. Then we have a governor who has been polled as the most popular [Democratic] governor in the country.

So the issues we're dealing with aren't actually partisan.

Whether your week inched along or zoomed by quickly, were bringing you some quick pop news items and fun features to end it on a high note.

We mentioned Cheri Beasley won her primary in North Carolina. POLITICOs Burgess Everett is reporting Democrats are unsure whether they want to go all-in for her Senate run. Find out why.

Beasley speaks at an election night event hosted by the North Carolina Democratic Party after winning her primary race in Raleigh, N.C., May 17. | Ben McKeown/AP Photo

WATCH: Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby on Operation Fly Formula the Biden administrations response to the baby formula shortage.

The Jan. 6 select committee is requesting an interview with Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), who previously didnt disclose bringing a constituent family into the U.S. Capitol the day before it was attacked. He reversed course Thursday, POLITICOs Nicholas Wu and Kyle Cheney report.

For the birds: Christian Cooper, the Black man who got the cops called on him by a white woman while he was bird watching in Central Park in 2020, gets his own TV show on National Geographic, Extraordinary Birder.

Prepare yourself for a devastating look at Covids impact with The New York Times, on the heels of America reaching 1 million deaths. Readers shared deeply moving and intimate final text messages with their loved ones, often sent from hospital beds.

Last week, a team of climbers made history as the first all-Black group to summit Mount Everest. They tell the Today Show they want to inspire a future generation of outdoor enthusiasts.

Rhiannon Giddens has a new opera, Omar, telling the story of Omar ibn Said, an educated Senegalese man who was captured from his homeland and enslaved in South Carolina and went on to author several works in Arabic, including this autobiographical essay.

Listen to Jamil Jan Kochai reading his story, Occupational Hazards. The writer, who was born in an Afghan refugee camp in Pakistan, has a story collection coming out in July.

Kendrick Lamars back at it again, with another video from his new album, N 95:

Camila Cabello and Maria Becerra team up for their bouncy new song, Hasta Los Dientes."

TikToks of the day: Too much energy

Splitting the bill be like

Excerpt from:

The Black Democrat taking on Rand Paul - POLITICO