Megan Nagorzanski
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.