Charles Booker seeking Democratic nomination to try to take out Republican U.S. Senator Rand Paul

♦By Rich Shumate, ChickenFriedPolitics.com editor

LOUISVILLE (CFP) — Democratic voters in Louisville will pick their likely next Congress member in Tuesday’s primary, while Kentucky voters statewide are expected to set up a fall showdown between Republican U.S. Senator Rand Paul and Democratic challenger Charles Booker.

Rand Paul and Charles Booker expected to face off in fall U.S. Senate race

Legislative and local offices are also on the ballot Tuesday; contests for statewide offices aren’t held until 2023.

Polls for in-person voting open at 6 a.m. and close at 6 p.m. in both the Central and Eastern time zones.

In the 3rd U.S. House District in metro Louisville, where Democratic U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth is retiring, State Senator Morgan McGarvey and State Rep. Attica Scott are competing for the Democratic nomination in the state’s only Democratic-leaning district.

Seven Republicans are also competing in the 3^rd District, including businessman Stuart Ray and Mike Craven, a former union official who ran unsuccessfully for the seat in 2018 and 2020.

None of Kentucky’s other five House seats – all held by Republicans – are expected to be competitive.

In the Senate race, Paul, from Bowling Green, is facing five little-known Republican challengers in his bid for a third term, while Booker is the biggest name in a four-candidate Democratic race.

Booker, a former state representative from Louisville, broke onto the political scene in 2020 when he nearly upset Amy McGrath, the anointed candidate of the Democratic establishment, in the state’s U.S. Senate primary. She was later crushed by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

Booker launched his uphill run against Paul in July 2021 and opted to stay in the race rather than switching to the metro Louisville U.S. House seat when Yarmuth retired.

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