To the surprise of absolutely no one, what my best friend used to call the Lexington Herald-Liberal endorsed Charles Booker for the Senate seat currently held by Rand Paul (R-KY). The newspaper has endorsed every Democrat in every competitive race:

• 2020: Joe Biden for President, Amy McGrath Henderson for Senate, and Josh Hicks for 6^th District Representative
• 2018: Amy McGrath Henderson for 6^th District Representative
• 2016: Hillary Clinton for President, Jim Gray for Senate, and Nancy Jo Kemper for 6^th District Representative
• 2014: Alison Lundergan Grimes for Senate, and Elisabeth Jensen for 6^th District Representative

The newspaper’s Editorial Board lamented:

It is frustrating that the national Democratic establishment has not seen fit to support Booker’s campaign; that brain trust apparently thinks it’s more worthwhile to give millions of dollars to right-wing candidates in Republican primaries instead of helping to boost the message of credible candidates.

That’s kind of what happens when the Democrats of today have nothing on which to run except their hatred for Donald Trump.

The newspaper has declined to endorse anyone for the 6^th District congressional seat, given that the Democrats were so uninterested in the contest that they allowed perennial candidate Geoff Young to win the primary; Mr Young is, to put it mildly, a kook candidate whom the state Democratic Party does not support.

What’s notable about all of those endorsements by the Herald-Leader? They all lost, lost in Kentucky as a whole, and lost in the Sixth District. The only close race was the 2018 congressional contest between incumbent Representative Andy Barr (R-KY) and Mrs Henderson, in which she was the beneficiary of a clear pile of out-of-state money as the Democrats made a big, mid-term elections push against President Donald Trump. Mrs Henderson outspent Mr Barr $8,274,396 to $5,580,477, but she had said, at a fundraiser in Massachusetts, “I am further left, I am more progressive, than anyone in the state of Kentucky.” The voters of the Sixth District believed her, and returned Mr Barr to Congress, 51.0% to 47.8%.

Naturally, Mrs Henderson tried to soft-peddle that furthest left part, trying to run as a moderate. As we have previously noted, former Sixth District Representative, Democrat Benn Chandler knew that he had to lie to “confuse” the voters about his political positions:

Lexington’s 6th Congressional District used to fall in the competitive category when Chandler held the seat for four terms. But Chandler, now the CEO of The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, says he had to practice the “politics of confusion” in order to survive in a place where most identified as conservative.

“I had to confuse my constituents so they couldn’t tell whether I was a liberal or a conservative or a moderate,” he said, noting that endeavor became more difficult as data showed him that an increasing amount of his constituents were primarily depending on conservative media outlets like Fox News, which blared narratives that tarred his entire party with the same broad brush. “When that’s the case and you’re a Democrat, you clearly are looking at a hell of an uphill battle.”

At least Mr Booker is not trying to confuse voters in Kentucky: he’s running pretty much straight up as a progressive.

Perhaps that’s why the Editorial Board have lamented that the “national Democratic establishment” have not invested much in Mr Booker’s campaign: they know that it’s an almost certain loser! After having wasted all of that money on Mrs Henderson’s two campaigns, maybe, just maybe, the “national Democratic establishment” have figured out that wasting money is just that: wasting money.