National Reckoning Upends Race To Defeat Mitch McConnell.
BLITZER: The National focus on racial injustice and policing as upended a key Democratic primary race. Our Senior Washington Correspondent Jeff Zeleny is joining us right now. Jeff, this is a race to see who will take on the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in November.</s>JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, Democrats have had their eye on this seat for longer than any other Senate race. The idea of defeating Mitch McConnell as he tries to run for a seventh term or at least giving him a tough run for his money has suddenly been upended by the political awakening that's happening across the country.</s>CHARLES BOOKER (D), KENTUCKY SENATE CANDIDATE: This is happening in Kentucky right now. We are in a moment you all. Were in a moment.</s>ZELENY (voice-over): A sleepy Senate primary race suddenly electrified in Kentucky.</s>BOOKER: This time has to be different for my cousins, for my little ones, for you all. This has to be different for Breonna, for Mr. McAtee, for everybody. That's a hashtag.</s>ZELENY (voice-over): A national reckoning on racism and police brutality is resonating loudly here where a Louisville police killed 26-year old Breonna Taylor, an EMT in March, and David McAtee, the owner of a barbecue restaurant in June. Weeks of protests have injected fresh uncertainty into the campaign over who Democrats will choose in tomorrow's election to take on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in November.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's Kentucky's best chance to move on from Mitch McConnell.</s>ZELENY (voice-over): Amy McGrath, a former marine pilot is the handpick choice of party leaders in Washington. Her primary victory was seen as a foregone conclusion. But state Representative Charles Booker is now riding a wave of momentum. (on-camera): You've said that you are campaigning from the hood to the holler. Explain that.</s>BOOKER: Well, I'm trying to build a movement here by speaking to our common bonds. And there's a reality that there are so many similarities in the hood that you would see in the places in the hollers of Eastern Kentucky and in the mountains that if we realize our common bonds, we can change the world.</s>ZELENY (voice-over): With a political awakening underway, McGrath has struggled to find her footing.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have you been on the ground in Louisville with the protesters the last three days or in Lexington or elsewhere, Ms. McGrath?</s>AMY MCGRATH (D), KENTUCKY SENATE CANDIDATE: I have not.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And why?</s>MCGRATH: Well, I've been with my family and I've had some family things going on this past weekend. But I've been following the news and, you know, and watching.</s>ZELENY (voice-over): Booker turn that moment into a TV ad. Well, she's dramatically out spending him $14 million to his $1 million on advertising alone. The closing momentum is on his side. The race is playing out here in Trump country where the President won the state four years ago by nearly 30 points.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Trump and Mitch McConnell delivering for Kentucky.</s>ZELENY (voice-over): From the streets of Louisville to small towns like Campbellsville, Booker is making the case for progressive change. His policies closely aligned with Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, both of whom have endorsed him.</s>BOOKER: We got to be that change. We got to be in that arc.</s>ZELENY (on-camera): Do you wonder if he's too progressive for Kentucky?</s>BRUCE WHALEY, KENTUCKY VOTER: Sometimes I think about that, but it's time for change. Everything is evolving manner.</s>ZELENY (voice-over): A more urgent test is the mechanics of voting. While tens of thousands have voted early, only one polling place will be open tomorrow in Louisville, with precincts consolidated because of coronavirus.</s>BOOKER: It's just naturally going to disenfranchise people, and that is a concern.</s>ZELENY: The uncertainty over this race is going to be complicated tomorrow on primary day here, Wolf, where normally 3,700 voting locations across the state of Kentucky have been boiled down to about 170. There is going to be only one here in the city of Louisville, one in the city of Lexington. Of course, the two largest cities in this Commonwealth of Kentucky. We've seen voting problems in other states across the country as these voters -- as these primaries have been changed because of the pandemic. So there's certainly as a question about how the votes will be counted in cast tomorrow. Wolf?</s>BLITZER: All right, we'll see what happens. Jeff Zeleny reporting, thank you. Coming up, the White House defense President Trump's use of a racist slur to describe the coronavirus.