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Openly gay Kentucky mayor to challenge Rand Paul
Posted On Jan 26 2016
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“But I think that the people in Kentucky are looking for an alternative”.
U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY, speaks to voters in Greenville, South Carolina.
Gray, a Democrat, has served as Lexington’s mayor since 2010.
Paul is now trailing in his bid to secure the Republican Presidential nomination, well behind front-runners Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.
“As your Senator I won’t just talk, I’ll listen”.
“Any campaign is a challenge but I’m confident that we’ll have the resources to wage a successful campaign”, he said, adding that he was running for Kentucky rather than political parties.
He filed to run on the Democratic ticket and hopes to bring back the American Dream that he says has gotten out of reach for so many Kentuckians. As of October, he’d missed only 1.1 percent of Senate votes, versus competing presidential candidates missing 20 to 26 percent. And whenever that drastic a plan is engaged, you’re going to have suffering at a significant level.
Gray will file today, Kentucky’s filing deadline, as a Democrat.
Gray still has to make his way through a contested primary, where he will face six other Democrats, though none come with built-in name ID or prospects to raise significant money and support from prominent Democratic leadership. He also spoke with a number of Kentucky Democrats, including the lone Democrat in the congressional delegation, Rep. John Yarmuth. Paul ran into a legal problem in Kentucky, where a state law forbids candidates from appearing on the ballot twice in the same election. Sellus Wilder, a filmmaker and former Frankfort City Commissioner, said he was running so that Kentuckians could see an honest debate about the coal industry’s future and what could be done to help eastern Kentucky.
Democrats in both Washington and Kentucky have wanted to take advantage of Paul’s struggles in the GOP presidential contest to try to knock him out of his Senate seat. Gray made a statement before a large group of reporters and photographers at the secretary of state’s office.
