After much speculation, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) has finally thrown his hat into the 2020 presidential race, announcing his bid on Friday, the first day of Black History Month.
The senator dropped a video on his YouTube page, which features him walking through his Newark neighborhood, as he emphasizes the need to work together
“We are better when we help each other. 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,” Booker says in the video, which also highlights his heritage and background.
“Together we will channel our common pain back into our common purpose. Together, America, we will rise,” he adds.
He also emphasizes that he is “the only senator who goes home to a low-income, inner-city community” in Newark, which he lauds as “the first community that took a chance on me.”
Booker has been long expected to join the battle for the White House and had said in the past that he would announce his plans after the holidays.
He is distinguished among his colleagues, and several presidents before, in the fact that he is unmarried, and should he succeed in his presidential bid, he would be America’s first unmarried president since 1884.
Booker’s announcement also officially makes him the second Black person to enter their name into the 2020 lineup. Sen. Kamala Harris announced her own campaign several weeks ago, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, in the same month that Shirley Chisholm announced her own candidacy for president back in 1972, in a similar nod to her heritage