Charles Booker claimed the Democratic nomination for Kentucky’s open U.S. Senate seat Tuesday, winning his primary rematch against Amy McGrath.
In 2020, Booker narrowly lost the Senate primary to McGrath, but he was winning with 47% of the vote to McGrath’s 36% when the Associated Press called the race Tuesday night.
At his Louisville election party, Booker said some Kentuckians had given up on partisan politics, but he said he has inspired them to get behind his campaign.
“We may not trust the politicians, but when those storms come, we lean on each other, and it ain't about party, it's about us standing together,” Booker said.
He will face GOP Congressman Andy Barr in the general election, who won the Republican nomination by a wide margin. They both seek to replace Sen. Mitch McConnell, the seven-term Republican who announced his retirement last year.
This is the second time in four years that Booker is the Democratic nominee in a U.S. Senate race, as he lost to GOP Sen. Rand Paul by a 23-point margin in 2022.
Booker defeated McGrath by winning by large margins in Jefferson and Fayette counties, the two most-populous and Democratic counties in Kentucky.
As he did in past races, Booker campaigned as an unapologetic progressive, championing policies like Medicare for All, universal income, free public university tuition and federal renter protections.
It’s an uphill battle for any Democrat seeking to take over the seat that McConnell has held onto since 1985. A Democrat has not represented Kentucky in the U.S. Senate since Wendell Ford left office in 1999.
Though voters in the state have shifted heavily rightward over the past three decades — and voted for President Donald Trump three times by wide margins — Kentucky did elect Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear by narrow margins in 2019 and 2023.
Booker projected optimism about a race that the Cook Political Report calls “solid red.”
“We are going to flip this seat, and when we flip this seat, we are going to flip the US Senate, and when we flip the US Senate, we're going to lift up an agenda for working people,” Booker said.
