Via Getty Images
Charles Booker is the first Black man from the state of Kentucky to receive the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, and he’s making a bold statement about lynching laws in his first campaign ad.
In the video released on Wednesday, Booker takes aim at his opponent Rand Paul for initially blocking legislation to make lynching a federal hate crime. Booker makes mention of the historical implications lynching has had in the state of Kentucky, and even features himself with a noose around his neck.
“The pain of our past, persists to this day. In Kentucky, like many states throughout the South, lynching was a tool of terror. It was used to kill hopes for freedom. It was used to kill my ancestors. Now, in a historic victory for our Commonwealth, I have become the first Black Kentuckian to receive the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate.”
Booker goes on to criticize Paul for some of the positions he’s taken about issues surrounding racial inequality over the last decade–including his stance on expanded health care and views about the Civil Rights Act–and insists that he will bring a much needed change to the state come November.
My opponent? The very person who compared expanded health care to slavery. The person who said he would’ve opposed the Civil Rights Act. The person who single-handedly blocked an anti-lynching act from being federal law. The choice couldn’t be clearer. Do we move forward together? Or do we let politicians like Rand Paul forever hold us back and drive us apart?”
Paul spoke out about his position on the Civil Rights Act during a speech at Howard University in April 2013. During the lengthy address, Rand Paul insisted that he supports the 1964 act, but is wary of “ramifications of certain portions of the Civil Rights Act beyond race.”
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