Booker Campaign Says Overseas Hackers Targeted Its Senate Race

Charles Booker's campaign for the U.S. Senate said Friday that overseas hackers tried to break into its communication systems and its campaign website, and that it appears they gained access to at least one staffer's Signal account.

The disclosure came in a press release on Friday, four days before the November 3 election. Booker, a Democrat, is running against Republican Representative Andy Barr for the seat held by retiring Senator Mitch McConnell. It is Booker's third campaign for the Senate.

The campaign said the FBI and other law enforcement agencies have taken steps to secure its systems and private data. The FBI's Louisville office declined to comment on the matter, the Louisville Courier Journal reported.

What the campaign said, and what it did not

"The fact that foreign actors attempted to hack and infiltrate our campaign systems so close to the election is only proof that we're in a position to win," Booker said in the release. "Our enemies, both domestic and abroad, don't want to see this campaign succeed and are scared. These types of desperate measures will not stop our campaign for the people of Kentucky."

The release did not name a country, a group, or a specific method. It did not say what data, if any, was taken from the staffer's account or from the campaign's systems. The campaign compared the attempt to efforts in past election cycles to infiltrate campaign systems and sow mistrust.

The campaign had flagged a disruption before. On August 27, it reported a "concerning disruption to the server impacting our website and email systems." It is unclear whether that disruption was related to the reported attack.

A second election-system incident this week

The release also pointed to the Federal Election Commission, whose electronic filing system went offline this week after an attempted intrusion, Reuters reported. The outage temporarily blocked last-minute campaign spending disclosures in the final days before the midterms.

The commission does not run elections or count votes. It tracks campaign money and enforces campaign finance rules, so the disruption concerned disclosure, not ballots.

The race

Kentucky voters choose a new senator on Tuesday. Barr represents Kentucky's 6th Congressional District, and Booker is a former state representative. Kentucky Party candidate Christopher Campbell is also on the ballot. The campaign said it would keep campaigning through Election Day.