[2] In April 2021, Booker formed an exploratory committee for the 2022 U.S. Senate race in Kentucky,[3] and formally announced that he was running on July 1, 2021.

[7] Booker was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on October 20, 1984, to parents who both dropped out of high school to tend to siblings.

[9][10] Booker worked for the Legislative Research Commission until 2014, when he was fired for violating a staff policy against partisan political activity after appearing in a campaign video of Alison Lundergan Grimes, a candidate in the 2014 United States Senate election in Kentucky.

[16] As part of the Kentucky House of Representatives, Booker served on the economic development and workforce, judiciary, and natural resources and energy committees.

[23] Booker received endorsements from nearly half of the Democrats in the Kentucky House of Representatives, celebrities, unions and organizations.

[20] He was endorsed by U.S. senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders; U.S. representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley; Tom Steyer; former U.S. secretary of housing and urban development, Julian Castro; Kentucky state senator Gerald Neal; former Kentucky secretary of state Alison Lundergan Grimes; actress Susan Sarandon; the Working Families Party; and the Sunrise Movement.

[24][25][26][27][28][29] The editorial boards of the Lexington Herald-Leader and The Courier Journal, Kentucky's two largest newspapers, also endorsed Booker.

[39] On May 17, Booker won the Democratic primary, and ultimately lost in a landslide to incumbent Republican senator Rand Paul in the general election.

Booker is a progressive who supports reparations for slavery, Medicare for All, criminal justice reform, universal basic income, and a Green New Deal.