In a two-and-a-half-minute YouTube video on Wednesday, Charles Booker announced he was in.

"The story I'd write is one where everyone in the Commonwealth can prosper," Booker said, announcing he'll seek the seat Mitch McConnell is vacating. "One where government shows up for us instead of stomping on us."

Booker pitched progressive policies, including universal health care and child care, affordable housing and energy, and a minimum of $40,000 a year for a 40-hour workweek.

He expressed solidarity across Kentucky's cultural and regional divides. He said he'd stood with coal miners in eastern Kentucky when a bankrupt company withheld their paychecks and with racial justice protesters in Louisville following the police killing of Breonna Taylor.

"I've stood with miners in Harlan County,

See Full Page