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Booker receives endorsements from Sanders, AOC, and the Herald-Leader

It was a significant day for the Charles Booker for Senate campaign. In one day — actually, in less than an hour — they got endorsements from presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders, progressive Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the Herald-Leader editorial board.

Sanders and AOC endorsements

Rep. Booker had endorsed Sanders for president earlier, and Sanders returned the favor, not only endorsing Booker, but urging people to donate to him.

A short time later, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez (often referred to as AOC) joined the endorsement parade:

The Herald-Leader endorsement

Then, a little after noon, the Herald-Leader put their endorsement online.

The editorial began by acknowledging all three candidates in the race as strong:

Kentucky is lucky to have a strong slate of candidates in the Democratic primary vying to take on the Senate Majority Leader in the November election. As they have shown in debates and in Zoom interviews with our editorial board, any one of them, state Rep. Charles Booker, Mike Broihier or Amy McGrath, is qualified and ready to serve.

They went on to talk about Broihier and McGrath:

Broihier is a plain-spoken man of many good ideas, from universal basic income to Medicare for All. Like McGrath, he is a former Marine, but has spent recent years as an asparagus farmer, journalist and substitute teacher in Lincoln County and deeply understands the plight of rural Kentuckians. Despite not having political experience, he is also a savvy campaigner, quickly attaching himself to the remains of the Andrew Yang national apparatus, a group of young tech-savvy politicos who digitally mastered a pandemic primary.

McGrath, the former Marine fighter pilot, is the nationally anointed front-runner with a war chest of donations that might even rival McConnell’s usual corporate haul. An impressive candidate in her previous run against U.S. Rep Andy Barr, the former fighter pilot is playing it safe as a moderate Democrat. She urges fixes for the Affordable Care Act and a public option, rather than introducing single payer health care, and opposes the free college tuition that her opponents advocate. She says upping the minimum wage will be more effective than a universal basic income. In our interview, she said she shares the same basic values as her opponents.

But then, they allude to the reason they ultimately passed on McGrath:

McGrath has put out sensible, middle-of-the-road positions aimed at Kentucky’s moderate voters, but they lack the boldness and vision that we believe is needed at this moment.

They then turn to discussing Booker:

But this moment in our fractious history seems to call beyond politics, and Charles Booker has risen to meet it in many different ways. … Because of his progressive stances, he is often sidelined in the Kentucky House of Representatives, but has done important work on legislative issues such as repealing charter schools, raising the state’s minimum wage and tightening restrictions on Kentucky’s lax gun laws. … In recent weeks, he has been on the front lines of the protests and unrest in Louisville over the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, standing against police brutality in black neighborhoods even as police turned tear gas on him as part of a peaceful protest.

Finally, they conclude with this:

We understand that Booker is the underdog in this race; he has a steep climb to earn votes outside of his native Louisville, where he is well-known. But we believe this is a time for passion, not pragmatism. Charles Booker is the only one generating real excitement among young people and old. We believe he would move the state in the direction that Kentucky needs to go in the future so it can, at long last, move forward. He deserves your vote.

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