Rand Paul says he’s running again for U.S. Senate and wades into the issue of race

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul said Tuesday he is running for a third term and, with his declaration, instantly launched himself into one of the most complicated and contentious issues in American politics: race.

“I am running again,” Paul said in Somerset Tuesday, “Whether there will be an official announcement at some point in time, we pretty much are running.”

The Republican traveled through Southern Kentucky Tuesday as part of a three-day tour of the state, making the type of official appearances an incumbent usually makes when running for reelection.

He effectively kicked off his campaign by wading headfirst into the issue of race.

America’s original sin of slavery and continued struggle with racism is a centerpiece of American politics and, with former state Rep. Charles Booker, D-Louisville, as the front-runner to face Paul in 2022, it has the potential of becoming a defining issue of Paul’s 2022 reelection campaign.

Booker, who is Black, gained national prominence during his 2020 U.S. Senate bid on the heels of Black Lives Matter protests that broke out in Louisville and across the country after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. He’s the type of politician who doesn’t shy away from calling out things like systemic racism in a state that’s nearly 88 percent white.

Paul, who is white, touched on race twice Tuesday in a speech to the chamber of commerce in Pulaski County, which is 96.3 percent white. He first spoke about race in a broader criticism of government spending by saying reparations shouldn’t be considered infrastructure, and then by claiming Americans are being told that “white people are terrible.”

“We’re now told the whole country is crumbling, we should teach about how white people are terrible,” Paul said. “How Coca-Cola says you need to bow down and say ‘I am white and I’m sorry…’ but it all gets back to this sort of narrative that it’s a bad place. We’re not a bad place. I think we’re a good people.”

Paul was likely referring to two hot-button controversies among conservatives: a curriculum to teach in schools the 1619 project, a Pulitzer Prize-winning project by the New York Times Magazine that attempted to explore the legacy of Black Americans, starting with when slaves first came to the country in 1619; and Coca-Cola’s decision to issue a statement denouncing a new law in Georgia that imposed more stringent voting rules.

When asked which part of the infrastructure bill dealt with reparations, Paul said he was referring to Democrats broadening the definition of infrastructure to include things like the National Science Foundation and in-home care. He said he does not support reparations.

“I don’t think one generation can be responsible for another generation in any form or fashion. It wouldn’t make any sense,” he said. “Is half of Barack Obama’s family supposed to pay the other half?”

Paul said he has supported police reform bills, but that most of his lifetime he’s felt like race relations have been getting better. He said there’s a skewed perception that “America is a terrible place” because the focus is on the problems that are occurring.

“I think if Martin Luther King were alive to look at a lot of this wokeism, he would be disappointed in how much we’re not looking at the content of your character, all we’re talking about is race again,” Paul said.

Last month, a U.S. House committee voted to advance a bill that would form a committee to study slavery reparations for Black Americans. Booker has called for a “truth and reconciliation commission” to grapple with the country’s history of racism and said “reparations are justly due.”

“Rand Paul’s entire mission is to create controversy out of nothing,” Booker said. “As Kentuckians, Black, white, or brown, we know structural racism is real. We know it undergirds the policies, economy, and budgetary decisions that shape our country.”

Should Booker win the Democratic primary, he would be the first Black Kentuckian to win a Democratic nomination for a statewide race. Kentucky has already elected two Black Kentuckians in the past six years: former Lt. Gov. Jenean Hampton and Attorney General Daniel Cameron, both Republicans.

“If there’s a problem with race, I don’t think we can paint Kentucky as a state not open to people of various backgrounds,” Paul said. “In fact, I would argue that on the Republican side, we are less conscious of race and we elect people because they’re good.”