Fallen stars
Cory Booker: A Struggle for Love
Does his fight end here?
His story
Cory Booker isn’t afraid to fight. When he found himself unable to make a difference as city council member of Newark in the early 2000s, he went on a 10-day hunger strike and camped in a tent to call attention to problems of crime and poverty facing the city. In 2002 Booker ran for mayor against four-time incumbent Sharpe James, the city’s first African American mayor who was also at the center of a traditional political machine that dominated in Newark. The campaign became one of the fiercest local races in modern history and was documented in the Oscar-nominated documentary StreetFight. It followed Booker in a race that saw the incumbent accuse Booker of not being black enough, and in which the Newark political machine was amply used against him. The documentary also highlighted the hope that Booker was able to inspire. In one endearing scene, a girl who was interviewed on the street said that Booker “smelled like the future”. Although he lost the brutal election of 2002, he displayed tenacity and emerged as a savvy politician to a nation watching. This laid the groundwork for his subsequent successful mayoral run in 2006; eventually becoming the then-only democratic African American in the U.S. Senate in 2013. As a senator, Booker made a name for himself during the Kavanaugh hearings when he said he would break judiciary committee rules by publishing confidential documents on Kavanaugh’s racial injustice.
His campaign
On February 1st, the first day of black history month, Cory Booker announced his intention to run for president. On the trail, Booker has centered his campaign around a message of love and unity, speaking with an overt conciliatory tone. On the debate stage, Booker has opted to direct his attacks largely on Trump rather than on the democratic rivals they are debating. At the first debate, Booker made it clear that he is against “putting progressives against moderates” finding that it “is dividing our party and demoralizing us in the face of the real enemy.’’ Yet this inability to distinguish himself along the political spectrum from the other candidates is precisely why he has not been able to separate himself from the pack. Booker has a history of distrust among progressives, evidenced by his pro-business positions and wealthy donor network. He has raised funds from Wall Street and Silicon Valley and prior to his run for president had close ties to the pharmaceutical industry. He has voiced support for Medicare for All and the Green New deal, but not without also immediately adding that he would be ‘realistic’ and a ‘pragmatist’ about its execution. While his recent policy positions illustrate an apparent turn to the left, liberals are skeptical to trust Booker given his past convictions. In 2012 for example, Booker in an appearance on Meet the Press said democrats should “stop attacking private equity”. Last month, Lawrence Hamm, a civil rights activist and progressive democrat who supports Bernie Sanders, announced that he is challenging Booker for Senate in a 2020 primary, positioning himself to the left of Booker. And it is not just progressives that distrust the senator. In New Jersey, Booker faced a scandal after it was uncovered that the drug dealer named T-Bone who he often cited in speeches was actually a figment of his imagination.
In office, he has had a mixed record. As Mayor, the city of Newark famously received $100 million from Facebook executive Mark Zuckerberg to fund schools, which turned out to have underwhelming results. The topic of education in general is a vulnerable topic for Booker, who has long been at odds with the democratic establishment over his support of charter schools. In the Senate he has looked to bolster his position on what seems to be his signature issue: criminal justice reform. He has co-sponsored bi-partisan legislation on criminal justice reform, which went into law in 2018.
On the campaign trail, Booker has been unable to leave a significant mark. His explicit plea that love trumps hate has not resonated with voters, who seem more preoccupied with tangible issues such as health care and climate change. While other candidates like Buttigieg and Klobuchar have spent a lot of time conveying the need for sanity and calm to return to the White House, Booker’s similar messages cloaked in terms of love and compassion simply haven’t stuck. This strategy is misguided in part because focussing on Trump didn’t work for Hillary Clinton in 2016. This shortcoming only tells part of the story however, since the frontrunner, Joe Biden (who Booker did once attack over his remarks on segregationist senators), has spent most of his efforts bashing Trump rather than discussing policy. Booker’s biggest mistake then might be his failure to explicitly demonstrate to the public where he fits on the political spectrum. On the one hand, he has alienated progressives with his big-money connections, while turning off moderates with his soft support for Medicare for All and other policies championed by liberals. This has effectively left him without a base and with no pathway to the nomination.
His future
Booker hasn’t given up yet and he is still raising money for his campaign. However it is more than likely that he will end his run either before or during early state voting. When he drops out of the race, where will he stand politically compared to before he entered the race? In some ways, it looks like the once- golden boy of the democratic party has missed his moment to become president of the United States. Unlike other candidates in the race, his name has not been widely floated as a contender for vice president either (unlike in 2016), although that could change. And while the campaign hasn’t damaged his reputation, Booker has hardly left a memorable impression that he could use to his benefit in either 2024 or 2028. In the end, only time will tell whether Booker is prepared to wage another fight for the presidency in the future.
