Charles Booker

Biography

Charles Booker was born in Louisville, Kentucky. He earned his B.A. from Western Kentucky University and his J.D. from the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law. He served in the Kentucky House of Representatives from 2019 to 2021. He ran in the 2020 Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, narrowly losing to Amy McGrath. He ran again in 2022, losing to Republican Rand Paul.

Professional background

Former Kentucky state representative (2019–2021); Attorney

Public service

Kentucky House of Representatives (2019–2021)

In this race

• Andy Barr (Republican)

Issue positions

Healthcare (Policy)

Booker calls healthcare a “human right,” and supports Medicare for All. He grounds his position in his experience with Type 1 diabetes and rationing insulin. He calls the current healthcare system “expensive, wasteful,” and says it “places profits over people,” and wants to replace the current health insurance system with a single-payer, government-run program. The Congressional Budget Office estimates a single-payer system would increase Federal subsidies by $1.5 trillion to $3.0 trillion by 2030, requiring taxes, spending reductions, or an increase in the Federal deficit. CBO also projects the system would be overloaded, as demand would rise faster than supply. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has claimed that Medicare for All “would decimate employer-sponsored insurance coverage” for 180 million Americans and would increase costs for taxpayers and worsen medical care. In Canada, the single-payer model most frequently cited as a comparable system to proposed Medicare for All programs, the Fraser Institute’s 2025 annual survey found that patients waited a median of 30 weeks from a general practitioner referral to receipt of specialist treatment. Under the current system in the United States, such procedures are available within days or weeks. A single-payer Medicare for All system would prevent patients from selecting their own private insurer, negotiating additional insurance coverage, or seeking care outside a government-set system while increasing taxes and worsening the federal deficit. — "𝗕𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: Booker’s policies would abolish private insurance and replace it with a government-run system that would increase taxes and bog down the healthcare system."

Taxes (Policy)

Booker’s current economic package combines a large middle-class tax cut with higher taxation of wealth. His “40x40x45” plan would make the first $45,000 of income tax-free and use a wealth tax, equalized capital-gains rates, and closed corporate and billionaire loopholes to replace revenue. Specific details, including tax rate, wealth threshold, treatment of joint filers, refundable credits, payroll taxes, and interaction with the standard deduction, are not specified in his plan. Consequently, no reliable net cost or household distribution can be calculated. Tax Foundation modeling generally finds wealth taxes raise less than static estimates and reduce saving and investment, though results depend heavily on design and the organization favors lower taxes. Booker’s goal is clear, but Booker’s claim of the program being self-financed is premature. The tax exemption also sits awkwardly beside Medicare for All and Booker’s other universal benefits, all of which require durable revenue. A narrower credit or exemption that phases out with income would target working families at lower cost, while a universal exemption is simpler but fiscally more expensive. — "𝗕𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: Booker’s “40x40x45” plan is not fully detailed, but would likely place more burden on high earners."

Environment & Energy (Policy)

Booker has championed a Green New Deal, which he reframes as a “Kentucky New Deal.” Booker supports reclaiming abandoned mine land, protecting black lung benefits, improving water and infrastructure, and creating unionized clean-energy jobs. In the Kentucky House, he opposed reducing compensation for customer-generated solar power, siding with rooftop-solar interests against utilities. Kentucky could benefit from mine-land reclamation, grid construction, flood resilience, and diversified employment. Coal supplied about 67% of Kentucky’s utility-scale electricity in 2024, making it the nation’s second-highest share. A rapid federal shift could therefore impose unusually high replacement, transmission, and reliability costs on the Commonwealth and disrupt coal communities before new industries mature. Booker is stronger on the case for investment than on milestones, permissible technologies, or ratepayer protection. A practical plan would include nuclear power, firm generation, worker transition guarantees, and an explicit reliability standard rather than treating “green jobs” as an automatic substitute. — "𝗕𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: Booker supports implementing green energy, which would disrupt the coal-dependent economy in Kentucky."

Immigration (Policy)

Booker supports amnesty for those in the United States illegally. He claims to support border security and humane treatment of those entering the United States, but fails to outline a plan to address the drugs, human trafficking, and violent crime spurred by illegal immigration. Booker supports abolishing ICE and has expressed disdain for the Trump administration’s immigration policies and ICE operations in American cities. He has called ICE “Trump’s personal army” and wants to replace it with “an immigration system rooted in safety, equity, and humanity,” saying he has a plan “to do just that.” Neither his website nor his X account detail his plans on this issue. Abolishing ICE without a detailed transfer of authorities, personnel, databases, detention capacity, and congressional oversight invites a costly reorganization and potential enforcement gaps and would continue to allow illegal immigrants to benefit from American taxpayer dollars. Under Biden, nearly 400,000 illegal immigrants attempted to cross the border in a single month, with millions in total entering the United States. CBO estimates the immigration surge under Biden’s watch imposed a direct $9.2 billion net cost on state and local governments in 2023, chiefly for schools, shelter, and border security. New reporting shows it also increased home prices in the United States. — "𝗕𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: If elected, Booker would abolish ICE, allowing illegal immigrants to roam free and continue to harm Americans financially and violently. However, he does not detail his plan for a new immigration system to replace ICE."

Public Safety (Policy)

Booker supports gun control and in 2020, he introduced a bill to increase restrictions and training requirements for concealed carry. Booker calls for “full and holistic investment in community safety” and decriminalizing poverty, but his current platform is sparse. His legislative record is more concrete. In 2019 he introduced bills to reserve cash bail largely for higher-risk defendants, create administrative parole for eligible nonviolent Class C and D felonies, and require graduated sanctions in place of prison time for probation or parole violations. Booker’s policies would allow criminals to roam the streets, cause employment disruption, and corrections costs while preserving detention hearings for dangerous defendants. They also shift more risk assessment to judges and agencies. Weak implementation could release repeat offenders or reduce deterrence. — "𝗕𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: Booker’s current plan is largely undefined, but his policies would likely weaken police forces and allow more criminals to roam the streets and continue committing crimes."

Economy & Labor (Policy)

Booker supports a $45,000 annual wage floor for a 40-hour workweek, or roughly $22 per hour, plus 40 paid sick hours. CBO estimated that a federal $15 minimum wage similar to the 2021 Raise the Wage Act could lift 900,000 people from poverty, but would reduce employment by an average 1.4 million workers and increase the deficit by $54 billion before interest. He also campaigns on a universal basic income, universal childcare, student-debt cancellation, tuition-free public college, and rent freezing. Universal benefits could improve mobility and family security, but Booker supplies no benefit level, eligibility rule, or consolidated budget. A $12,000 UBI for roughly 260 million adults would approach $3.1 trillion annually before offsets. Booker’s platform promotes a federal jobs guarantee for workers displaced by AI, as well as a moratorium on new data centers until certain regulations are set in place. His AI proposals are unusually specific about worker governance but vague about innovation and jurisdiction. — "𝗕𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: Booker’s economic plans are more detailed than other platform issues. Raising the minimum wage would eliminate jobs and raise prices for consumers, while providing universal benefits would likely be funded by increased taxes."

Democracy & Campaign Finance (Policy)

As a state representative Booker sponsored a constitutional amendment restoring voting rights after completion of a felony sentence, a bill providing at least 12 working days of early in-person voting, and a resolution urging a federal Election Day holiday. His present campaign emphasizes breaking down barriers to democracy, but gives few specifics on campaign finance, election administration, the filibuster, or judicial reform. Restoration can improve civic reintegration, and early voting gives workers more flexibility. Administrative costs and election-security rules remain legitimate design questions. Booker should disclose whether he supports voter identification, nationwide ballot standards, public campaign financing, limits consistent with the First Amendment, and changing Senate rules. Broad democracy language is not a substitute for an implementable bill. There is also a federalism question: minimum protections can prevent discrimination, but highly prescriptive national rules may displace workable state practices. Booker should distinguish civil-rights safeguards from administrative choices properly left to Kentucky and other states. — "𝗕𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: Booker wants to make it easier for illegal immigrants and non-citizens to vote in American elections, as well as expanding voter access for former convicts following incarceration."

Foreign Policy (Policy)

Booker calls Israel’s conduct in Gaza genocide, supports a free Palestine, release of all hostages, and a lasting end to violence. He has pledged to reject AIPAC funding and says only Congress may declare war, opposing unauthorized Middle East wars. In 2022 he supported sanctions against Russia and aid to Ukraine while urging diplomacy. This positions him in the progressive, restraint-oriented wing of the Democratic Party. Conditioning or ending arms transfers could reduce U.S. complicity in civilian harm and pressure Israeli policy, but could also weaken an ally’s deterrence unless paired with a concrete security and hostage strategy. His earlier support for Ukraine aid shows he is not categorically isolationist. Even so, voters cannot tell what principles separate permissible assistance from an open-ended commitment, or how he would balance humanitarian goals, alliance credibility, escalation risk, and cost. — "𝗕𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: Booker clearly provides his moral stance on Gaza but says little on NATO, China, trade, nuclear proliferation, defense spending, or the terms of Ukraine support. For a Senate candidate, his foreign policy portfolio remains incomplete."

Sources (Reference)

◆ Healthcare — Archived Charles Booker issues page; CBO Publication 56898; U.S. Chamber of Commerce Medicare for All analysis; Fraser Institute 2025 Canadian healthcare wait-times survey.

◆ Taxes — Archived Charles Booker issues page; Tax Foundation analysis of tax increases and the national debt.

◆ Environment & Energy — Archived Charles Booker issues page; U.S. Energy Information Administration Kentucky energy overview.

◆ Immigration — Three Charles Booker campaign posts on X; U.S. Customs and Border Protection border-release data; CBO Publication 60165; New York Post report on immigration and housing costs.

◆ Public Safety — Archived Charles Booker issues page; Kentucky General Assembly 2019 House bills.

◆ Economy & Labor — CBO Publication 56975; archived Charles Booker issues page.

◆ Foreign Policy — Archived Charles Booker issues page.