4/19/2023 0 Comments Charles booker“The truth of the matter is we have much more in common than we do otherwise,” Booker said. Rand Paul, after his longshot progressive bid for the Senate Democratic nomination last year came shockingly close.īooker announced his decision Sunday on Kentucky Educational Television, pitching his deep red state that they could find common ground on crucial issues. He is the founder of the advocacy group Hood to the Holler, which continues the work of his campaign, building bridges between previously siloed communities.Former Kentucky state representative Charles Booker tweeted on Monday that he is “strongly considering” running for Senate in 2022 against Republican Sen. A graduate of the University of Louisville and its Brandeis School of Law, Booker is a Bingham fellow and a Bloomberg Innovation Delivery Team fellow. From the Hood to the Holler is both a moving coming-of-age story and an urgent political intervention-a much-needed blueprint for how equity and racial justice might transcend partisan divisions in Kentucky, throughout the South, and across America.Ĭharles Booker represented the 43rd District in the Kentucky House of Representatives. In Kentucky, as in many places across the United States, powerful political and economic influences work to keep us isolated, competitive, and unable to see our shared interests yet so often we are united by the failures of these same systems. This realization was powerful for Charles, planting a seed for his political and social mission to build bridges between previously siloed communities. Booker saw through centuries of racial injustice and the myth of the urban-rural divide, to the underlying common ground between the hood and holler. Cynicism about change ran deep, but so did the belief in the strength of community. Traveling to coal country, he met citizens who, like those in the West End, suffered from extreme isolation and for whom fresh food, clean water and economic stability were scarce. Yet when he accepted an unexpected appointment to the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, Charles began to see a new path forward. Robbed of multiple family members by gun violence, Booker continually faced a system built to fail him and his neighbors. Even after he graduated from law school, the cost of healthcare forced Booker to ration the insulin he took for diabetes, landing him in intensive care. His mother often went hungry so her son could eat. Growing up in the poor, largely segregated West End of Louisville, faith and love were the foundation of his family but material comforts, stability, and safety were scarce. In this inspiring memoir, Booker describes a childhood defined by both scarcity and abundance. Now, in From the Hood to the Holler: A Story of Separate Worlds, Shared Dreams, and the Fight for America's Future, Booker tells the improbable story of his journey from one of the poorest neighborhoods in the country to a political career forging new alliances among forgotten communities across the New South and beyond. This unlikely coalition set the stage for 2022: Booker is currently running against Kentucky’s Senator Rand Paul. Despite a narrow loss in that primary, it was Booker’s authentic voice and vision that galvanized voters across the state-from the poor, historically Black neighborhoods of Louisville and Lexington, to the isolated, largely white communities in Kentucky’s rural hill areas. After serving in the Kentucky House of Representatives as the youngest Black state legislator, he garnered national support and attention for his exciting, near-upset primary bid to unseat Senator Mitch McConnell. Join us for Charles Booker discussing and signing From the Hood to the Holler: A Story of Separate Worlds, Shared Dreams, and the Fight for America's Future.Ĭharles Booker burst on the national political scene in 2020. Charles Booker discussing and signing From the Hood to the Holler: A Story of Separate Worlds, Shared Dreams, and the Fight for America's Future Thursday, April 28 at 7pm ET
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