After a nearly year-long campaign to make headway in the Democratic Presidential primary, Harrington Park native and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker suspended his campaign Monday, Jan. 13, citing a lack of campaign funds and his failure to make the latest nationally-televised primary debate held last week.
Since kicking off his campaign in February 2019, Booker has generated much interest but lagged consistently in polls and fundraising.
According to Monmouth University’s latest poll, Booker was polling at 1 percent support in New Hampshire, and about 3 percent in Iowa, the two early Democratic primary states.
Booker had qualified for the first five presidential debates with polling numbers ranging from 3–5 percent, but failed to qualify for December’s debate and the January debate.
“It’s with a full heart that I share this news—I’m suspending my campaign for president. To my team, supporters, and everyone who gave me a shot—thank you. I am so proud of what we built, and I feel nothing but faith in what we can accomplish together,” wrote Booker on Twitter Jan. 13 at 8 a.m.
Appearing Monday on Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC show, Booker said he called off his run for president due to a “perfect storm” of not qualifying for Tuesday’s candidate debate and lack of campaign funding.
“For us, it was a perfect storm,” Booker said on the MSNBC show. “It was not making the debate stage. It was being off the field for a week or two. We just got hit with everything at once and had to make the call.”
He told the host that he enjoyed the “experience itself” but he will hold off for the moment in making any candidate endorsements.
“There’s obviously a sadness, a mourning when a year-long effort comes to an end,” he told Maddow. “But the experience itself, the people I’ve met, the irrationally committed folks to the vision and the mission that we had in this campaign, that just lifts me and my heart is really full.”
Booker said he ran the type of campaign he preferred, the same type of positive campaign he ran when he was elected mayor in Newark.
“The call of the country right now is to mobilize this nation to deal with the problems that are bigger than our partisanship,” he said. “It’s not about beating somebody else, it’s about winning this nation, which means bringing us together.”
“Clearly I was not good enough to get that message through,” he added.
Fellow candidates bemoaned Booker’s withdrawal from the campaign, including Andrew Yang, who tweeted his support.
“Cory Booker—my friend, my brother. Running alongside you has been one of the joyous parts of this race. You inspire me and millions of other Americans to be better and do better. I will miss seeing you and Rosario on the trail, but not for long. The fight continues,” wrote Yang.
Moving forward, Booker said he did not believe he had the resources to remain competitive—having raised about $6.6 million in 2019’s last quarter—and would need to be in Washington, D.C. for Trump’s Senate trial, further interrupting his campaign.
Booker’s fundraising was only a fraction of funds raised by other top Democratic candidates including Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Pete Buttigieg.
Booker’s campaign theme was to restore a sense of community to America, calling on America’s citizens to come together in “common purpose” for greater justice and social change.
He pushed for reform of gun laws including a national gun license, reforms to criminal justice including marijuana legalization and expunging records of people convicted of marijuana-involved crimes.
Even Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg—a latecomer to the primary campaign—commented on Booker’s leaving the race.
“Cory Booker ran a strong and substantive campaign to lift and inspire Americans, which speaks to the heart of the guy that I’ve known and supported for many years— from when we worked together on issues as mayors. New Jersey is lucky to have Cory fighting for them,” tweeted Bloomberg.
Booker’s departure even merited attention from President Donald Trump, who issued a sarcastic tweet marking his campaign’s demise.
“Really Big Breaking News (Kidding): Booker, who was in zero polling territory, just dropped out of the Democrat Presidential Primary Race. Now I can rest easy tonight. I was sooo concerned that I would someday have to go head to head with him!”
Booker did not respond to Trump.
Following Booker’s exit, not a single African American candidate remains, following earlier departures of California U.S. Senator Kamala Harris and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro.
Tuesday’s nationally televised Democratic debate featured six white candidates, a result that minority candidates partly blame on the party’s stringent fundraising and polling thresholds for such debates.
Booker will now face a progressive challenger in a Democratic Primary for his Senate seat in 2020, with Newark civil rights leader Lawrence Hamm declaring his intention to seek the seat.
New voter deadlines
New voters hoping to vote in the June 2 Democratic presidential primary must be 18 by Election Day and register to vote by submitting a voter registration form postmarked no later than May 12, 2020, say election officials.
To vote in the Nov. 3, 2020 presidential election, voters must be 18 by Nov. 3 to be eligible.
Deadline for voter registration should be postmarked by Oct. 13, 2020.
County Clerk John Hogan conducts voter outreach events, which include registration opportunities in Bergen County towns.
On Jan. 21, county officials will be in Rockleigh, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; and similar times on Feb. 5 at Ramapo College; and March 11 and 12 at Lyndhurst Borough Hall.
More information can be found online on the Bergen County Clerk’s website.
As of December 2019, Bergen County had approximately 631,536 registered voters, including 231,387 registered Democrats, 135,091 registered Republicans, and 258.909 unaffiliated voters, said county elections officials.
Approximately 5,000 total county voters are registered to parties such as the Conservative Party, Green Party, Libertarian Party, Natural Law Party, Reform Party, Socialist Party and New Jersey Constitutional Party.
