McConnell’s 2014 challenger endorses Charles Booker in Senate race

Alison Lundergan Grimes, the former Kentucky secretary of State who unsuccessfully challenged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for his seat in 2014, endorsed state Rep. Charles Booker’s bid for the Democratic Senate nomination on Tuesday.

“Proud to endorse my friend @Booker4KY for U.S. Senate in the Kentucky Democratic Primary!” Grimes tweeted. “Together, let’s elect a new generation of leadership in KY!”

Booker, a first-term state representative, has racked up several high-profile endorsements in recent weeks in his bid to take on McConnell in November, including from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), two of the most prominent progressives in Congress.

Booker has also scored endorsements from Kentucky’s two largest newspapers, the Louisville Courier Journal and Lexington Herald-Leader.

The endorsements are at odds with Senate Democratic leaders in Washington, who recruited and have thrown their support behind Amy McGrath, a former Marine fighter pilot who ran unsuccessfully against Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) in Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District in 2018.

McGrath has proven to be adept at fundraising and has a staggering financial advantage over other candidates in the race, Democrat or Republican. Her latest fundraising report, covering the stretch between April 1 and June 3, showed her raking in nearly $11.3 million. She has more than $19.3 million in cash on hand.

By comparison, Booker brought in about $476,000 during the same two-month period and finished with only about $285,000 in the bank.

Despite the massive financial gap between McGrath and Booker, the freshman state lawmaker has gained considerable momentum in recent weeks and has emerged as a serious force in Kentucky’s June 23 primary.