Booker taps Georgia operative to manage Kentucky Senate campaign against Rand Paul
Charles Booker has tapped a Georgia political operative deeply involved in that state’s political transformation to lead his 2022 U.S Senate campaign in Kentucky.
Bianca Keaton, who just recently served as chair of the Gwinnett County Democratic Party in Georgia, told McClatchy she accepted the role as Booker’s campaign manager after months of continuous conversations with the candidate that began in February.
“I was convinced of getting him to have someone else run his campaign. I hadn’t done it before, not to this scale. I wanted him to have the best of the best,” Keaton said in an interview. “I got to yes, Charles challenged me the same way I challenged him.”
Booker is currently considered the leading Democratic candidate to take on Republican Sen. Rand Paul next year. He formally launched his bid on July 1, a year following his narrow loss in the 2020 Democratic U.S. Senate primary to Amy McGrath.
Keaton’s relationship with Booker dates back more than a decade, when he connected with her about internship opportunities in Washington. Keaton is a former congressional aide to former Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond and former Pennsylvania Rep. Bob Brady. She moved to Georgia in 2014 and immediately dove into local politics, becoming the first female to ever lead the Democratic Party in Gwinnett County, one of the key emerging swing counties in the state.
President Joe Biden carried Gwinnett County, Georgia by a whopping 18 points last November, after Hillary Clinton only carried it by 6 points in 2016. Keaton was also an instrumental organizer in the successful runoff campaigns of Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff.
Booker kept close tabs on Georgia’s blue transformation and felt like there were some applicable lessons to apply to Kentucky.
“What he saw in Georgia was how relational organizing really drove home that success that people said was impossible. He sees the need and the imperative in Kentucky and really wants the people of Kentucky to believe that change is possible,” Keaton said.
Keaton’s first experience in Kentucky came in 2006 when she got involved in Rep. John Yarmuth’s first race. She met Booker years later through an overlapping friend network and he called on her for counsel during his 2020 Senate race. Even though Keaton was initially reluctant, she said Booker coaxed her into steering the exploratory phase that commenced in April.
For this run, Keaton said Booker wanted women of color to have a prominent role in the campaign. “I rose to the top of his list as someone he knew would be helpful,” she said.
At the moment, Keaton is splitting her time between her home and Georgia and Kentucky. She noted her future residence is still to be determined.
But the transition to the commonwealth appears to be in motion. While Keaton is still listed as a county chair on the Georgia Democratic Party’s website, her LinkedIn profile lists her as “immediate past chairwoman.”
This story was originally published August 6, 2021 at 2:44 PM with the headline "Booker taps Georgia operative to manage Kentucky Senate campaign against Rand Paul."
