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News > World

US: Cory Booker Announces 2020 Presidential Bid

  • Senator Cory Booker delivers remarks at the Conference of Mayors winter meeting in Washington D.C.

    Senator Cory Booker delivers remarks at the Conference of Mayors winter meeting in Washington D.C. | Photo: Reuters

Published 1 February 2019
Opinion

The progressive's track record for supporting "feel good" social issues doesn't mask his connection to the financial elite and corporate interests.

United States Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey announced Friday he was launching a bid to become the Democratic Party's nominee in the 2020 presidential race.

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Booker, 49, is the latest Democrat and fourth U.S. senator to announce he will be running in what is already becoming a crowded race to try an unseat President Donald Trump, who is expected to run for a second term.

Booker has been the target of criticism on the left for garnering elite financial ties that many in the camp of former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders reject. 

In fact in 2017, Booker and 12 other Democrats rejected a bill proposed by Sanders and Senator Amy Klobuchar to lower the cost of pharmaceuticals by importing from Canada -- somewhat ironic as many of the drugs from Canada are manufactured in the U.S. The cost of medicine in Canada is dramatically cheaper than in the U.S., where an EpiPen costs twice as much and medication for mental health, such as Abilify, costs five times as much.

In 2017, online magazine Jezebel reported that Booker received US$267,338 from pharmaceutical companies, among some of the top financial recipients in the Senate.

“This is classic Booker — stand out front on feel-good social issues, regardless of his past positions, and align with big money everywhere else,” Walter Bragman at Paste Magazine wrote.

Booker is the second Black candidate to announce his candidacy, after Senator Kamala Harris of California, formerly the 32nd Attorney General of California from 2011 to 2017.

 In 2006, he became the mayor of New Jersey's largest city, Newark, before becoming a senator seven years later.

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