Charles Booker 

Charles Booker did not respond to a request for comment. This profile was compiled using information from Booker’s campaign website.

Charles Booker is a lifelong resident of Louisville’s West End. 

He was the first in his family to graduate from law school and later worked in roles across the Kentucky state government. Booker served as Director of Administrative Services for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife, where he worked with communities across the state.

The Democratic candidates in the May 19 primary are: Charles Booker, Joshua Blanton Sr., Logan Forsythe, Amy McGrath, Dale Lewis Romans, Pamela Stevenson, and Vincent Anthony Thompson.

Longtime incumbent Mitch McConnell is not seeking reelection.

Here are the other races with May primaries

In the “why I’m running” section of his campaign website Booker said now more than ever, people need leadership that is committed to the work of ending generational poverty and uprooting structural racism, delivering on system changing policies like Medicare for All, Universal Basic Income, Reparations, and Universal Childcare. 

He said that people need leadership that will protect small businesses, family farms and grassroots organizations instead of capitulating to corporate greed. Leadership that will secure housing as a human right, and make sure families don’t get crushed by expensive utilities or thrown out on the street because rent is too high. 

“The current White House is abysmal,” Booker said on his campaign website. “They have failed to show up for regular people at every possible turn, sold us out coming and going, tanked the economy we were already getting pummeled by, trampled on our rights and freedoms, and only made the swamp worse.

“While it is critical that we push back on these wannabe kings and bring accountability to Washington, the movement has always been bigger than the hate we stand against. I am running for Senate, because I know Kentucky is worth fighting for.”