This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Cory Booker on Friday morning jumped into the already busy field of Democratic candidates running for the White House in 2020 in a bid to oust Donald Trump.

Who will run in 2020? The full list of Democrats vying to take on Trump Read more

The New Jersey senator, long considered one of the Democratic party’s rising stars, launched his campaign in an email to supporters that promised to “channel our common pain back into our common purpose. Together, America, we will rise.”

Booker, who first rose to prominence as the mayor of Newark, also released an accompanying video recounting the racial discrimination weathered by his family, while speaking to the power of civil rights movements.

“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, 49, was elected to the Senate in 2013 following a special election in New Jersey, becoming the state’s first black senator. He made his announcement on the first day of February, which is designated Black History Month, a time on the calendar for commemorations and educational programs about significant people and events in the history of the African diaspora.

Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) I’m running for president. Join me on this journey. https://t.co/fEDqOVIfwh pic.twitter.com/h1FTPUYRzo

On Martin Luther King Day in the US last month, Booker spoke in South Carolina, as did a potential Democratic rival for the nomination, Bernie Sanders.

Following Harris’s announcement about her run on MLK Day, Booker is the second black candidate in the race. Rather than opening an exploratory committee to test the waters, Booker took the direct step to open a campaign straight to the public, seeking the Democratic nomination.

Booker plans to travel to the first caucus state of Iowa the weekend of February 9, then to early battlegrounds South Carolina and New Hampshire over the following week, according to his campaign.

Like some of the other Democratic contenders, Booker has said he will not accept campaign donations from corporate political action committees and lobbyists. He also opposes Super Pacs supporting any candidacy.

Booker previously served on the city council of Newark, the state’s largest city, and then as its mayor, cultivating a profile as a hands-on politician whose feats included racing into a burning building to save a woman from a fire and rescuing a freezing dog. He personally shoveled the snow of residents and earned a widespread following on social media.

Since his arrival in the Senate, Booker had been widely viewed as a potential contender for president and was a finalist for Hillary Clinton’s vice presidential nominee in 2016.

Branding himself as a progressive, Booker has embraced a ‘Green New Deal’ — a sweeping proposal that aims to combat climate change by zeroing out greenhouse gas emissions in a decade and reducing poverty with clean-energy jobs backed by federal spending.

As with his Senate colleagues Warren, Harris and Kirsten Gillibrand, he is a supporter of Medicare-for-All health insurance provisions, and has called for comprehensive immigration reform. Booker also played a key role in championing criminal justice reform efforts in the Senate, co-sponsoring bills that would do away with mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders.

He has, however, been criticized by leftwingers for strong ties to Wall Street firms and the pharmaceutical industry.

A member of the Senate judiciary committee, Booker is known for his fiery questioning of nominees and administration officials in the age of Trump.

The senator memorably lashed out at homeland security secretary Kristjen Nielsen over reports that the president questioned the need to accept immigrants from “shithole countries” in reference to Haiti, El Salvador and certain African countries. A visibly emotional Booker said he cried “tears of rage” upon learning of Trump’s comments.

On Friday morning, Booker, who is fluent in Spanish, took part in call-in interviews with radio shows that are especially popular with African American and Latinx listeners. Later in the morning he will go on television to be interviewed on the popular daytime chat show The View, which has a majority female viewership. His mother will be sitting in the studio audience.