New Jersey Senator Cory Booker Launches 2020 Presidential Bid
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) – New Jersey Senator Cory Booker is joining the 2020 presidential race.
The Democrat announced his campaign with a video Friday, the first day of Black History Month.
"I believe that we can build a country where no one is forgotten, no one is left behind; where parents can put food on the table; where there are good paying jobs with good benefits in every neighborhood; where our criminal justice system keeps us safe, instead of shuffling more children into cages and coffins; where we see the faces of our leaders on television and feel pride, not shame," he said in the video.
Sen. Cory Booker Talks On His 2020 Presidential Run
Booker is the second black candidate in a primary field that's already historically diverse.
Cory signs paperwork declaring his candidacy for president, his mom Carolyn by his side. pic.twitter.com/2KUXn4nUfN
— Matt Klapper (@mattklapper) February 1, 2019
Booker enters what's shaping up to be a crowded presidential primary, with three of his fellow Democratic senators — Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kamala Harris of California and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York — already either declared or exploring a run. But he's spent months telegraphing his intentions to join the race, visiting the early-voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina to build connections with key powerbrokers. He already has slated trips back to those states later this month.
Gillibrand extended her congratulations on Twitter.
Congratulations and welcome to the race to one of my closest friends, @corybooker! I'll be cheering you on—just, you know, not TOO hard. pic.twitter.com/zeWskppQpv
— Kirsten Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand) February 1, 2019
"Congratulations and welcome to the race to one of my closest friends, @corybooker! I'll be cheering you on—just, you know, not TOO hard," she posted.
Booker also will begin reaching out to key constituencies Friday, conducting call-in interviews with three radio shows popular with black and Hispanic listeners. Later on Friday, Booker will be a guest on "The View," a TV talk show popular with female audiences, where his mother plans to sit in the audience.
A former mayor of Newark, New Jersey's largest city, Booker won a special Senate election in 2013 to replace Democrat Frank Lautenberg and then won a full Senate term in 2014. He will be able to run for a second full Senate term in 2020 while running for president, thanks to a law that New Jersey's governor signed in November.
But that doesn't mean the 49-year-old's path to the nomination will be easy. As many as five more Democratic senators could soon mount their own primary bids, creating a competition for voters' attention, and several of Booker's rival presidential hopefuls bring higher name recognition to a race that may also feature popular former Vice President Joe Biden. Booker also will likely stand alone as an unmarried candidate, though he brings a compelling personal biography that could help elevate his message of bringing Americans together around what he described as "common purpose."
Booker's father grew up in a low-income community in North Carolina, and the senator has recalled his family's later struggle to settle in suburban New Jersey amid discrimination against black homebuyers. The senator has brought a heartfelt and passionate style to his achievements in the Senate, at times fusing his personal spirituality with policy proposals that focus on social justice. Booker played a key role in the bipartisan criminal justice reform bill that Trump supported last year, for example, a deal he helped strike two months after sparring with Republicans during the battle over Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation.
In his announcement video, Booker invoked the fight against slavery and the role of immigration in building the nation's character.
"The history of our nation is defined by collective action; by interwoven destinies of slaves and abolitionists; of those born here and those who chose America as home; of those who took up arms to defend our country and those who linked arms to challenge and change it," he said.
Born in the nation's capital but raised in New Jersey, Booker made a name for himself as Newark mayor by personally shoveling the snow of residents. He has $4.1 million left in his campaign coffers that could also be used to assist his presidential run. Rather than opening an exploratory committee to test the waters, Booker took the direct step to open a campaign seeking the Democratic nomination.
Booker is aligning with many other prominent Democratic White House contenders by forswearing all donations from corporate political action committees and federal lobbyists to his campaign, dubbed Cory 2020. A prominent Booker supporter, San Francisco attorney Steve Phillips, says he is working on millions of dollars in committed donations to a so-called super PAC that would boost the senator's candidacy, but Booker's campaign is openly against super PACs playing any role in the presidential race.
(© Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)