New Jersey Senator Cory Booker announced that he is running for president Friday.
Booker, a Democrat who previously served as mayor of Newark, launched his campaign on the first day of Black History Month. Booker is the second black candidate to announce his run in the most diverse presidential field in Democratic history, which already includes multiple women, a Latino candidate, and a gay candidate.
"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 a video released by his campaign Friday.
"I'm Cory Booker and I'm running for president of the United States of America," he says.
Booker, an unmarried vegan, says in the video that he is "the only senator who goes home to a low-income, inner city community" in Newark, "the first community that took a chance on me."
Booker embraces Medicare for All amid criticism:
Like fellow contenders Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, and Julian Castro, Booker has signed on in support of the Medicare for All proposal first pushed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, CNN reported.
Booker has also announced he would no longer accept corporate PAC money amid criticism that he accepted a lot of money from Wall Street donors.
Booker received more money from corporate donors than any other members of Congress in his first Senate bid, WNYC reported.
Booker plans to run on Green New Deal, criminal justice reform:
Booker is running on “a plan to give newborn babies savings accounts worth tens of thousands for when they turn 18, a suite of criminal justice reforms and policies to enact ‘climate justice,’ including a ‘Green New Deal’ to confront climate change,” his aides told The Washington Post.
Booker will also push a “pilot program to create a federal jobs guarantee, a plan to stop anti-competitive hiring practices and monopolies, and a refundable housing credit program that would aim to help Americans struggling to pay rent,” The Post reported.
“Booker’s sweeping criminal justice reform plans include legalizing marijuana, reducing workplace discrimination against convicts, giving federal money to areas the government determines were most hurt by the war on drugs and improving the treatment of incarcerated women, among a host of other policies,” his aides told the outlet.
