Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. (Photo: Zach Gibson/BB)
Sen. Cory Booker announced that he's running for the Democratic presidential nomination to challenge President Donald Trump in 2020, saying the nation needs to be able to see its leaders and "feel pride, not shame."
Booker, 49, a senator since 2013 and the former mayor of Newark, New Jersey, joins a growing Democratic primary field including fellow Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kamala Harris of California, and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.
"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," Booker said in a video released early Friday. He called for a country "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."
Booker's running to become the nation's second black president and would face at least one other African-American opponent, Harris, in a party where black voters have been decisive in picking the Democratic nominee in the last two open contests — Hillary Clinton in 2016, and Barack Obama in 2008.
New Jersey's first black senator draws comparisons with Obama, who arrived in the Senate from Illinois in 2005 to immediate buzz about Oval Office ambitions. Yet at a time of increasing energy in the Democratic Party's progressive wing, Booker will be challenged by other candidates who are more strongly embraced on the left, including Warren and, potentially, Bernie Sanders of Vermont if he decides to run.
Speaking to reporters on Friday outside his three-story brick house in Newark's downtown central ward, Booker offered an upbeat message that suggested a contrast with the attacks on Trump by some other Democratic hopefuls as well as top leaders in the highly energized progressive wing of the party.
"We've got to stop the trash talking, the Twitter trolling and tearing folks down," Booker said. "This is the time for all of us to think about our own role in putting the indivisible back in this nation."
Private Health Insurance
Booker also took pains to separate himself from leading contender Harris, who at a CNN town hall event on Monday advocated the elimination of the "inhumane" private health insurance industry as part of a move toward "Medicare for all." Booker said he won't seek an end to the industry.
"Even countries that have vast access to publicly offered health care still have private health care, so no," he said.
He also said he doesn't want to end the Senate filibuster, the delaying tactic that can kill legislation and take 60 votes to end, which hands the minority party big sway. Warren and Gillibrand have said recently they'd consider that. It's an option that would critics say would damage the Senate but might aid a Democratic president seeking tough-to-pass environmental or health care changes.
Raising Money
Booker has been working to gain favor within his party, and raised more than $7 million for federal, state and local candidates and parties before the 2018 elections, according to data compiled by his office. He campaigned for fellow Democrats in 24 states, including early presidential caucus and primary states Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
