Cory Booker ends presidential campaign
New Jersey senator Cory Booker ended his campaign one day before the next Democratic debate, which he had not qualified for.
January 13, 2020
New Jersey Senator Cory Booker suspended his presidential campaign Monday morning.
“I will carry this fight forward,” Booker wrote in a statement on his website. “I just won’t be doing it as a candidate for president this year.”
It’s with a full heart that I share this news—I’m suspending my campaign for president.
To my team, supporters, and everyone who gave me a shot—thank you. I am so proud of what we built, and I feel nothing but faith in what we can accomplish together. pic.twitter.com/Fxvc549vlJ
— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) January 13, 2020
Booker didn’t clear the polling requirements for the Democratic debate in December, or the upcoming January debate. Candidates needed at least five percent support in four DNC-approved polls as well as meet a unique donor threshold.
In his statement, Booker said fundraising was becoming increasingly difficult.
“Our campaign has reached the point where we need more money to scale up and continue building a campaign that can win,” Booker said. “Money we don’t have, and money that is harder to raise because I won’t be on the next debate stage and because the urgent business of impeachment will rightly be keeping me in Washington.
At a town hall in North Liberty, Booker told voters his duties as a senator in the upcoming impeachment trial could make campaigning difficult.
A Jan. 10 Des Moines Register poll showed Booker polling at 3 percent in Iowa. Booker’s exit narrows the field of Democratic candidates to 12.
Booker’s departure also eliminates another candidate of color from the Democratic-nomination race, which at one time was touted as one of the most diverse fields in history for the nomination.
