With possible Booker announcement coming, Rand Paul takes a few early campaign shots

Republican U.S. Sen. Rand Paul said Wednesday that Democrat Charles Booker, who may announce his candidacy against Paul on Thursday in Louisville, is too liberal to win next year’s contest and predicted that other Democratic candidates will enter the race.

While Paul was talking to reporters in Shelbyville, Ruth Gao of Louisville, was announcing that she will be a Democratic candidate trying to unseat Paul in the U.S. Senate.

Gao said she “aims to become the first millennial woman senator and usher in the next generation of leadership in Washington, D.C.”

She officially filed a campaign committee in May. The announcement of her candidacy came via social media with an accompanying video.

Booker, a former state representative, has scheduled a “special” news conference for noon Thursday at the Kentucky Center for African American Heritage in west Louisville.

Paul, who has been visiting several Kentucky communities this week, held a brief news conference after meeting with state Rep. Jennifer Decker, R-Shelbyville, and her staff at Operation Care Encore Shop. Decker is executive director of the Christian, non-denominational ministry that provides for the physical, spiritual, emotional and social well-being of people in need. She also has been a strong supporter of Paul.

Asked what he thinks Booker’s chances are of becoming Kentucky’s U.S. senator, Paul, an ophthalmologist who has been in the U.S. Senate since January 2011, said, “I don’t think it’s going to be very popular to defund the police. I don’t think most Kentuckians think that somehow infrastructure is reparations for slavery and that somehow Kentucky needs to pay reparations for slavery.

“I just don’t think that is going to be very popular.”

Asked if he would be willing to debate Booker if Booker is the Democratic nominee next year, Paul said, “We’ve always debated. I think it’s a long road to see whether or not ... I don’t know that ideas that far to the left can win even the Democratic primary.”

Paul said Booker is likely to get challengers “even in the primary, but we will see how it goes.”

Booker’s campaign did not respond to Herald-Leader questions about Paul’s comments.

Paul said he will stress in his campaign that government should only spend what comes in and balance its budget, have low taxes, emphasize that our rights come from God and make sure that government’s main job is to defend our rights, whether it is right to speech, religion, our gun ownership or to be free from the government to come into your house without a warrant.

He said he will continue to work to keep America out of war unless it is absolutely necessary.

The big issues in the U.S. Senate next year, he said, are likely to be inflation and people’s income “being squeezed.”

Paul also said it is unlikely that he will run for president in 2024. “I have no plans to do that,” said Paul, who ran for president in 2016.