By BERRY CRAIG
AFT Local 1360
Former state Rep. Charles Booker isn’t officially running for anything.
But the Louisville Democrat is pondering a challenge against Republican Sen. Rand Paul next year, and he's got his Hood to the Holler organization geared up to help start a “Voting Rights Texting Campaign” beginning Monday.
“We'll join together on Zoom to learn how to text people with felonies in their past to help them figure out if they can register to vote and get them registered to vote,” says a Hood to the Holler email. "This is exactly the kind of work we need to do to leverage our grassroots power and transform the future of Kentucky.”
The texting campaign is a cooperative effort between Hood to the Holler and Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, the League of Women Voters, the Campaign Legal Center, plus “other groups working to register Kentuckians,” according to the email.
A training session is set for 6:30 p.m. Monday, EDT. Click here to RSVP.
Those attending the training are invited to join the texting campaign. “We'll be reaching out specifically to people who have opted into getting help by text with voter registration,” says the email.
Booker came up short against Amy McGrath in the May, 2020, Democratic senate primary. She lost to Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell in the November general election.
“Hood to the Holler is an organization founded by Charles Booker, and is focused on leveraging the incredible momentum for positive change in Kentucky and nationally, toward the aim of building broad coalitions, breaking down barriers of race and class, and fueling a people centered movement to build political power and transform our future,” says the Hood to the Holler website.
Unions rate the hard-right, Trump-tilting Paul one of the most anti-labor lawmakers in Washington. He supports a national "right to work" law and has votes the union position on issues just 12 percent of the time, according to the AFL-CIO.