Charles Booker

Charles Booker (born 1984) is an American politician from the commonwealth of Kentucky. He serves in the Kentucky House of Representatives for the 43rd district, and is currently Kentucky's youngest black state lawmaker. Booker is a member of the Democratic Party, and is running for the Democratic nomination for Mitch McConnell's Kentucky Senate Seat in the 2020 election.

Booker graduated from Louisville Male High School in Louisville, Kentucky, and earned his bachelor's degree and Juris Doctor from the University of Louisville.

Booker worked for the Legislative Research Commission until 2014, when he was fired for appearing in a campaign video of Alison Lundergan Grimes, a candidate in the 2014 United States Senate election in Kentucky. He then worked for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources and West Louisville FoodPort. In 2016, he ran against Gerald Neal in the Democratic Party primary election for the 33rd district of the Kentucky Senate. Booker finished in third place with 20 percent of the vote, behind Neal, who received 48 percent, and Joan Stringer, who received 32 percent.

Following Darryl Owens' retirement from representing the 43rd district in the Kentucky House of Representatives in 2018, Booker ran to succeed him. In a field of seven candidates, Booker won the Democratic nomination with 29.5 percent of the vote, and defeated Republican Everett Corley in the general election by 56 percent.

On January 5, 2020, Booker formally entered the 2020 Kentucky Senate race. A progressive Democrat, Booker supported the Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign. Booker had advocated for universal health care, and a universal basic income.

Booker and his wife, Tanesha, have two daughters, and live in Russell, Louisville.