WASHINGTON DC: US Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey is launching a bid for the White House, aiming to be the Democratic Party’s nominee for the 2020 presidential election, according to media reports on Friday.
Booker, 49, became the latest Democrat and the fourth US senator to announce a presidential bid in what is expected to be a crowded race to be the candidate to try to unseat President Donald Trump.
“I believe that we can build a country where no one is forgotten, where no one is left behind,” he said in a video on his website. He added that he would focus on creating good jobs and reforming the criminal justice system.
He announced his bid on the first day of Black History Month, mentioning on his website the impact of racial discrimination on his family and a video posted on it emphasized racial justice issues.
Booker is the second black American to decide to run, after US Senator Kamala Harris of California.
Booker grew up in New Jersey, attended Stanford University and Yale Law School, and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship, before returning to New Jersey. In 2006, he became the mayor of New Jersey’s largest city, Newark, before becoming a senator seven years later.
