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Booker joins an already populated group of Senate colleagues – Sens. Kamala Harris (California), Kirsten Gillibrand (New York) and Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts) are already present or should be in the near future – and with others like Sens. Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota) and Sherrod Brown (Ohio) are also considering offers.
For Booker, his candidacy for the presidential election is the culmination of a career – despite the fact that he is not yet 50 years old – for a long time this trajectory. Since the early 2000s, in the early 2000s, he has emerged under national limelight as a reformer of the Black Power-taking Crusade in Newark, New Jersey. If you have not watched the documentary "Street Fight" on his – Since being elected to the Senate in 2013, Booker has long worn the label "rising star who will run for president". (Of course, it would not fit exactly on a badge.)
And now he's running. He enters the race with real strengths and major issues surrounding him. Here are five elements to consider in Booker's application:
1. He is the most natural and natural speaker of the race.
One of the ways to stand out in a very congested presidential field is to have a skill that no one has. Booker has this in his style of emotional and charismatic speech. (If you need evidence, look at his speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.) Although Booker has faced the criticism that has struck him for his so-called theatricality, the truth is that his speaking abilities will illuminate the rooms of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. And probably help him stand out in debates while standing alongside nine other politicians in 2020. It is also likely that some voters of the Democratic base will benefit from comparison (too easy) with the last charismatic speaker African American national politics: Barack Obama.
2. He has a solid core of long-standing helpers around him.
Because Booker was perceived as a presidential candidate since, essentially, in 2002, he has attracted a large and talented group of senior aides who have been following him for years. know him well and his style. Addisu Demissie, head of Booker's presidential campaign, managed his candidacy for the Senate in 2013. Matt Klapper, one of the campaign's leading advisers, has been Senator Booker's chief of staff for years. Mo Butler was Booker's chief of staff when he was mayor of Newark and will be a senior strategist in the presidential campaign. It is difficult to overestimate how important it is for a presidential candidate to be surrounded by a) whom he trusts and b) who can say no. During a two year presidential campaign, you will say and do silly things – or at least think silly things. You need people who can defend you and tell you not to say and do these things.
3. He is an indefatigable activist
Running for president is a difficult task. You have to wake up many mornings in a senseless hotel room in Iowa or New Hampshire, with the one-digit thermometer and the falling snow and spend the next 18 hours acting as if each person that you met was the biggest have ever met. It's very, very difficult. But Booker's 2018 program – in which he campaigned like crazy for candidates from all over the country – suggests that he has the energy to do it and understand what it takes. In addition, at age 49, he will be almost three decades younger than some of the other running candidates, which should help him better manage the situation.
4. As a candidate, he has hardly proved himself
Booker has never been confronted with a profound mutation of his past by a well-financed opponent. And his special election victory in the Senate in 2013 raised some questions as to whether he could withstand this kind of scrutiny. There were some direct messages on Twitter with a stripper from Oregon who have never been fully explained. And the mysterious figure of "T-Bone", a drug dealer who, according to Booker, threatened to kill him. The problem was that when the reporters searched for T-Bone, no one could find it. And although Booker has repeatedly spoken of the man as though he was a real person, it seems that there is no T-Bone. "He's an archetypal of so many people who are out there," Booker said in 2007. "He's 1,000% a real person." Who, like, always leaves things troubled. Is T-Bone a real person? Or an archetype? Booker does not lose a race for the presidency based on this issue. But this suggests that he has work to do in his past. And quick.
5. His record is not perfect for the Liberals
Since arriving in the Senate in 2013, Booker has made a largely liberal figure. According to GovTrack's votes, Booker is the 17th most liberal senator in the Senate. But in his past, he touched on areas that could be problematic for the Liberals seeking a candidate. Booker was a prominent advocate for the choice of school during his tenure as Mayor of Newark – so much so that the city's teachers' union opposed his re-election in 2010. He worked with the secretary at the University of Newark. Education, Betsy DeVos, on the issues of school choice, though he voted against it. its confirmation to its current role. And there is the fact that earlier in his career, Booker was one of the main recipients of donations to the Wall Street campaign. While Booker has since sworn donations from corporations, there have long been donations – from individuals and companies associated with corporations – in previous races, which his opponents are likely to feast on.
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct the year of Booker's "archetype" quote.
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