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Kentucky Democratic Senate candidate Charles Booker released a campaign video Wednesday which features him wearing a noose, in an attempt to highlight Senator Rand Paul's opposition to a 2020 bill that would have made lynching a federal hate crime. The video, which starts with a graphic warning, opens with a shot of a noose hanging from a tree. "The pain of our past persists to this day," Booker, who is Black, says in the opening lines. "In Kentucky, like many states throughout the South, lynching was a tool for terror. It was used to kill hopes for freedom."

In a provocative and controversial push, the Democratic Senate nominee who’s challenging Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky in November’s midterm election wears a noose in a new ad criticizing Paul’s past opposition to a measure to make lynching a federal hate crime. But the spot, by former state lawmaker Charles Booker, makes no mention that Paul later supported an updated anti-lynching bill that is now law. "The pain of our past persists to this day. In Kentucky, like many states throughout the South, lynching was a tool of terror. It was used to kill hopes for freedom," Booker, who...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Republican U.S. Sen. Rand Paul looked past his fall opponent Tuesday to slam national Democrats, while his Democratic challenger doubled down on his progressive message and vowed to take the fight to the incumbent in a matchup featuring contrasting agendas. The libertarian-leaning Paul coasted to victory over five little-known Republican challengers in his primary. Democrat Charles Booker, a Black former state lawmaker, defeated three primary opponents to become the latest nominee to try to snap the long losing streak of Kentucky Democrats in U.S. Senate races. The Bluegrass State hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate...

@RandPaul Kentucky, I want to thank you for voting for me to be your Republican nominee for US Senate. I’m honored to serve and honored to have your vote. #KYPrimary #ElectionDay Clip ...

Former state Rep. Charles Booker is jumping into the 2022 Senate race in Kentucky. Booker, a progressive who came within striking distance of the Democratic Senate nomination in 2020, announced his latest campaign in a video posted online Thursday. His decision was first reported by HuffPost. “As we go into this day where we celebrate our independence, let’s commit to making it mean something,” Booker says in his announcement video. “And I’m not just asking that of you. I’m going to lead by example. And it’s with that understanding that we have to lead ourselves that I’m going to run...

Former Kentucky state Rep. Charles Booker will launch a bid to unseat Sen. Rand Paul, he announced. The 37-year-old rose to national prominence last year when he narrowly lost the Democratic primary to take on Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to Amy McGrath, a former Marine combat pilot who ran as a moderate and was defeated. At the same time that Booker was campaigning, 26-year-old Breonna Taylor, a black woman, in Louisville, Kentucky, was shot and killed in a botched police raid that sparked outrage and racial justice protests nationwide.

Former Kentucky state Rep. Charles Booker, who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination last year to take on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), said on Monday that he is “strongly considering” a bid against Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) next year. “I am strongly considering a run for United States Senate in 2022,” Booker, who campaigned as a progressive in 2020, tweeted. “Good morning.” Booker challenged Amy McGrath, the well-funded former Marine fighter pilot favored by Senate Democratic leadership, in last year’s Democratic Senate primary in Kentucky. McGrath ultimately won the nomination but by a smaller-than-expected 3-point margin. McConnell went on...

**SNIP** But to believe Bowman’s ouster of Engel is a sign that the Ocasio-Cortez wing of the Democratic Party is taking over would be a severe misreading of the political landscape at the congressional level - and nationally. She attracts an inordinate amount of attention for a first-term lawmaker, keeping up an active and innovative social media presence, and appearing frequently on television. It’s easy to conflate the publicity with political influence. In fact, the vast majority of Justice Democrats who have run over the past two House cycles have lost, often in humiliating fashion. Since emerging on the national...

The successor to prison-bound former Rep. Chris Collins and the challenger to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will be decided Tuesday along with nominees for dozens of House seats as six states hold elections. But it may take several days for votes to be counted as states cope with an expected surge in mail-in ballots because of the coronavirus pandemic. Elections in Kentucky, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina and Virginia had already been delayed, while South Carolina’s runoffs for state-level offices were always planned for Tuesday.In New York, Kentucky and North Carolina, which is hosting a GOP runoff for White...

LOUISVILLE, KY — As polls began closing in the parts of Kentucky in the Eastern Time zone Tuesday, State Rep. Charles Booker's U.S. Senate campaign requested an injunction from the Jefferson Circuit Court to extend voting hours until 9 p.m. at the Kentucky Exposition Center. In a news release, the campaign said it filed a petition for the injunction because of reports of serious traffic delays at the Kentucky Expo Center, which served as a polling location in Louisville. After the petition was filed, the doors were unlocked and remained open until 6:30 p.m., NBC affiliate WAVE-TV reports. “For hours,...

Democratic Senate candidate Amy McGrath of Kentucky – showcasing her grassroots appeal – took to Twitter this weekend to tout her fundraising prowess. McGrath – who many Democrats hope will be the candidate to topple Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell – noted that “we've crossed our 1 millionth donation mark. While the average donation hasn't changed, our grassroots team has grown stronger across KY. This is how we win - together.” The former U.S. Marine fighter pilot hauled in a whopping $11.3 million the past three months, outraising McConnell in the second quarter of fundraising. And with a massive campaign...

Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday backed six progressive insurgent candidates in upcoming Democratic primaries, including two contenders who are challenging high-profile House Democrats. And the independent lawmaker’s also at odds with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) -- endorsing a rival candidate to the contender the Senate Democrats’ political arm is supporting in Kentucky. **SNIP** "One of the ways we must continue building that movement is by electing progressives at all levels of government. Because the truth is, real change never happens from the top on down. It happens from the bottom on up,” Sanders emphasized. Among those he’s backing...