Cory Booker is about to take his "lead with love" message out for a two-week test run.

So far, that message has led him somewhere between the middle and the back of the pack of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates.

There is no evidence yet that Booker's big-hearted, love-thy-enemy theme has struck a chord with the broader Democratic primary electorate, which for now is unified in its anger and determination to defeat President Donald Trump.

As Booker prepares Saturday to launch his "Justice for All" tour in Newark's Military Park, the city where he served as mayor from 2006 to 2013, he finds himself as a single-digit candidate in sixth place, garnering a paltry 3.2 percent slice of the early Democratic primary electorate, according to the Real Clear Politics average of recent 2020 polls.

And Booker, a veritable fundraising machine during his pursuit of his U.S. Senate seat, a candidate who could easily tap Wall Street, Hollywood and Silicon Valley donors, now trails most of his rivals in campaign contributions for the first quarter of this year.

To some observers, Booker's treading-water status reflects some of the shifting political realities.

A onetime darling of the progressive left with 1 million Twitter followers, Booker is now facing new progressive competitors with their own social networks and first-name brands: Beto O'Rourke, the Zen-like former congressman from Texas, or Kamala Harris, the progressive former prosecutor and U.S. senator from California.

And Booker can no longer boast on his résumé of being the lone multi-lingual candidate who was a Rhodes scholar. "Mayor Pete" Buttigieg, of South Bend, Indiana, served in the Afghanistan war and can speak seven languages.

"The field of rising stars has gotten more crowded than it was four years ago," said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, who has tracked Booker's rise from Newark to the U.S. Senate.

Yet Murray and other observers say Booker is playing the long game, and that it would be a colossal waste of time trying to vault in front of the pack 10 months before the Iowa caucus, the first-in-the-nation nominating contest.

The two apparent front-runners, former Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, are largely coasting on their national name recognition. Their large cushion of support could evaporate in the heat of the primary fight and create an opening for a Harris or a Booker or others to eclipse them.

"If I was Kamala Harris or Cory Booker, I would be hesitant to be the rock star this early,'' said Sean Bagniewski, chairman of the Polk County Iowa Democratic Committee, which includes Des Moines. "It's really hard to be front-runners and maintain the momentum for the next 10 months."

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Yet Booker has hit the trail with an aspirational plea for unity and higher purpose — a pitch that sounds more suited for a pulpit than for the bare-knuckled realities of the campaign. Booker often invokes the themes and language of Martin Luther King Jr., whose portrait was prominently displayed in his office during his tenure as Newark's mayor.

"I believe very firmly that you can't lead the people if you don't love the people, all of the people,'' Booker said during his "Town Hall" broadcast on CNN earlier this month. "The only way to beat hate is not to bring in more hate, but to bring in love and hope and uniting people in solving the persistent injustices in our country."

Some political observers snicker at Booker's kumbaya rhetoric. They argue that the pitchfork-wielding Democratic Party activists want to hear the sound of the war drum after four years of Trump's assault on long-held liberal gains.

Yet political veterans say Booker is following a long-held — and successful — tradition of casting as himself a complete departure from the unpopular incumbent. "If you believe people are looking for an opposite of what they got in [Trump], his message is probably spot on,'' said Jeff Link, a veteran Democratic consultant in Iowa.

Link also suggested Booker's message of unity might be more in tune with voters than most suspect. A December poll of 500 likely caucus-goers conducted last December for the Focus on Rural America, a group that promotes progressive economic policies, said nearly 87 percent wanted a nominee capable of healing the racial and economic divide in the country. Only 34 percent supported impeaching Trump.

That is similar to the Iowa Poll conducted by the Des Moines Register in December, which had 89 percent of respondents declaring "someone who will unite the country" as an essential trait they want to see in a president.

Link said other candidates, like O'Rourke and Harris, have adopted an inclusive message mixed with a healthy dose of harsh criticism aimed at Trump. Booker, for example, doesn't hesitate to take swings at Trump — although not by name. At the CNN event, Booker accused Trump of being a "Twitter trash-talking" executive who conducted "moral vandalism" from the Oval Office.

Voters "just don't want an approach that is combative,'' Link said. "Maybe Booker is too far out on the love spectrum, but that is where these candidates are."

Still, Booker's tepid first-quarter fundraising has raised some eyebrows. His $5 million trailed far behind Sanders ($18 million), Harris ($12 million) and O'Rourke ($9.4 million). And then there was the $7.4 million raised by Buttigieg, a startling haul for 37-year-old newcomer with a difficult-to-pronounce name and who until recently had no national profile.

Booker put a positive spin on his totals during a campaign swing last weekend in New Hampshire.

“I feel incredible,” Booker said. “We set goals for ourselves, and we surpassed our own goals. We’re seeing incredible energy and enthusiasm everywhere we go in this campaign, from online donors to even events like this that exceed our expectations.”

Bagniewski, who has not endorsed a candidate, noted that Booker and Harris have similar career trajectories — political celebrities now in the early stages of a national campaign. Harris' early advantage could give her the edge in building the campaign for the "battle at the end of the year."

"If Cory is looking for something that he needs to be working on, it is certainly the fundraising,'' Bagniewski said. "But he’s a smart guy, and I’m sure he knows that."