The Man Booker prize has been emasculated. The Man Group has decided after 18 years of channelling more than £25 million ($46 million) into Britain's most influential fiction prize that enough is enough. According to the hedge fund's chief executive, Luke Ellis, the decision came after a review of the group's philanthropic spending that concluded it should use the power of its cash to improve diversity within financial services. The Man Group's sponsorship has always been slightly controversial, and one former judge, British novelist Sebastian Faulks, was reported by Britain's Sunday Times as describing Man as "the enemy" and "not the sort of people who should be sponsoring literary prizes, they're the kind of people literary prizes ought to be criticising". While Booker seems an appropriate name for the literary prize, the company is actually a food wholesaler. This year's Man Booker Prize and Man Booker International prize will go ahead as normal, and the Booker Prize Foundation said in a statement that "the trustees are in discussion with a new sponsor and are confident that the new funding will be in place for 2020. In the meantime the two prizes will run as usual this year."

Quite how easy finding a sponsor will be is another matter. When Orange, the telecom group and founding sponsor of Britain's Women's Prize for Fiction, Bailey's stepped in for a few years. Now, the prize has three main sponsors – it calls its new arrangement a "family structure"' – and there will be no naming rights. The prize will be known as the WPFF. But given the astonishing amount of attention and coverage the Booker Prize generates each year – often helped by a little fuss and carefully curated controversy – it shouldn't be hard. The Ubud Writers' Festival seems to have the same broad approach as the women's prize. In 2011, only a few months before that year's instalment of one of the most popular festivals around, Citibank pulled out of a three-year, naming-rights deal, leaving organiser Janet de Neefe to make the most of a straitened budget. At the time she said would be doing a lot of groundwork to develop a more philanthropic form of fund-raising. Now Ubud has a vast array of partners ranging from Maureen and Tony Wheeler's Planet Wheeler to the Bali Yoga Shop, and the festival has gone from strength to strength.</s>Newly-announced presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) joined a chorus of 2020 White House hopefuls in calling on Gov. Ralph Northam (D-VA) to resign after a photo surfaced featuring him and another person in blackface and Klu Klux Klan attire.

“These images arouse centuries of anger, anguish, and racist violence and they’ve eroded all confidence in Gov. Northam’s ability to lead,” Booker wrote on Twitter. “We should expect more from our elected officials. He should resign.”

Northam admitted Friday that he appears in the 1984 medical yearbook photo on his designated page showing one individual in blackface and the second wearing a KKK robe and hood. Northam, who acknowledged that explosive photo is “clearly racist and offensive,” would not reveal which costume he was wearing. The website Big League Politics first reported on the photo, and was later confirmed by the Virginia-Pilot and the Washington Post.

“This behavior is not in keeping with who I am today and the values I have fought for throughout my career in the military, in medicine, and in public service. But I want to be clear, I understand how this decision shakes Virginians’ faith in that commitment,” he said in a statement.

Joining Booker in calling for Northam’s resignation were Democrat presidential hopefuls Sens. Kamala Harris (D-CA) Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), along with former Obama-era HUD Secretary Julian Castro. “There aren’t two sets of rules for our friends and our foes: Right is right and wrong is wrong,” Gillibrand said. “Americans deserve to be respected by their leaders, and racism cannot be excused in our government or anywhere else. Having seen the photo, I believe Governor Northam should resign.”</s>(CNN) Sen. Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat who rose to prominence as Newark's charismatic and ambitious mayor, announced Friday that he is running for president.

Booker chose the first day of Black History Month to launch his campaign, timing that nods to Booker's own heritage and suggests he will put it at the center of his pitch to voters.

"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 narrates in a video released on Friday morning, which features him walking through his Newark neighborhood.

"I'm Cory Booker and I'm running for president of the United States of America," he says in the video.

Booker joins a crowded and growing Democratic field that is already the most diverse in history -- with multiple women, one gay candidate, a Latino and, with Booker now in the mix, two black candidates.

His announcement comes nearly a year to the day from the Iowa caucuses and the start of the primary calendar. Booker plans to head to Iowa February 8-9 and then to South Carolina on February 10. He also intends to visit New Hampshire over Presidents Day weekend.

Booker is one of several senators running for president or seriously considering it. At 49, he is the youngest among his Senate colleagues in the race. His age is not all that sets him apart: Booker is unmarried and vegan, two unique qualities among the emerging Democratic field.

In his announcement video, Booker also notes 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."

In the Senate, Booker has at times favored a pragmatic approach, teaming up with like-minded Republicans on issues like criminal justice. But he has also emerged as a passionate interrogator of President Donald Trump's nominees -- including Justice Brett Kavanaugh, at whose confirmation hearing Booker memorably unloaded in a heated "Spartacus moment."

Public polling suggests Booker is unknown to many Americans. But in a field where there is no clear front-runner, he brings a raw political talent that some Democrats believe could make him a powerful contender.

The campaign message of Booker, who's a gifted orator on the stump, will center on his signature themes of finding "common purpose" and a bringing about a "revival of civic grace" in American society, drawing a stark, if implicit, contrast with President Donald Trump's harsh rhetoric.

While Booker has been reluctant to attack the President directly, not wanting to emulate his tactics, Trump has not hesitated to target the senator -- saying during a White House event in October that Booker "ran Newark, New Jersey, into the ground."

It's unclear how Booker's record as mayor will play in the Democratic primary or beyond. Critics say Booker did not meet his lofty promises to reshape the city, with some progressives faulting his support for school choice, among other issues. But Booker's allies believe this chapter of his story will be an asset, affording Booker some distance from Washington and demonstrating his executive chops.

As a senator, Booker has sought to sand off some of his rough political edges ahead of 2020, burnishing his progressive credentials by signing on to policies such as "Medicare-for-all." Last year, he announced he would no longer accept corporate PAC money; some progressives have been skeptical of Booker for the support he has received from Wall Street donors. Booker will also oppose super PACS supporting his candidacy or others.

Reflecting its central place in Booker's story, Newark will be the headquarters for his campaign. Logistically, that home base will offer the candidate and his team easy access to the power hubs of Washington and New York, plus proximity to three major airports to facilitate travel to key primary states and fundraising hotspots around the country.

His campaign manager will be Addisu Demissie, a veteran of Booker's 2013 Senate race, who most recently ran Gavin Newsom's successful bid for California governor. Demissie also boasts experience on the ground in Iowa, having cut his teeth as a field organizer for John Kerry's 2004 caucus campaign, returning in the 2008 cycle on behalf of Hillary Clinton.

Other top campaign officials announced Friday include Jenna Lowenstein, who formerly ran Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy's 2018 re-election campaign, as deputy campaign manager; Booker's Senate chief of staff Matt Klapper as senior adviser; and Modia Butler, a longtime Booker adviser dating back to his days in Newark, as senior strategist.

Booker's path to the nomination would almost certainly run through South Carolina, where African-American voters compose a majority of the Democratic primary electorate. But Booker has also aggressively cultivated a network in Iowa, recognizing that a strong performance there would build valuable momentum for later contests.

To steer his Iowa operation, Booker has already lined up a team of sought-after operatives: Michael Frosolone, who led Iowa Democrats' statehouse campaigns in 2018; Joe O'Hern, who ran the Democratic coordinated campaign in Ohio during the midterms and oversaw Martin O'Malley's 2016 caucus efforts; Haley Hager, most recently the Iowa director for Tom Steyer's NextGen group targeting young voters; and Tess Seger, outgoing communications director for the Iowa Democratic Party.

Comparisons to Obama

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Born in 1969 in Washington, Booker enjoyed a comfortable upbringing in the post-civil rights era, a lot he ascribes to a "conspiracy of love" that enabled his parents to break barriers. Cary and Carolyn Booker were among the earliest black executives at IBM and, because of anti-discrimination laws, they were able to buy a home and raise their children in the affluent, mostly white community of Harrington Park, New Jersey.

Booker attended Stanford as a star football recruit, playing for four years but, by his own admission, never breaking through at the college level. Booker's interests were broad, however: He also served as student body president and ran a crisis hotline for students. He would go on to attend Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and later graduate from Yale Law School.

With an elite law degree in hand, Booker bypassed more lucrative opportunities and moved into an affordable housing complex in one of Newark's poorest neighborhoods, planning to lend his skills to a nonprofit. He soon turned to local politics, however, unseating a longtime incumbent on the City Council.

In 2002, Booker once again took on an uphill political battle, mounting a challenge to Newark Mayor Sharpe James, an avatar of old-school political corruption. Although Booker fell short by a few thousand votes, he won in losing -- becoming a media and political darling in the process.

Four years later, Booker ran again and won, cementing his status as a rising star in the Democratic Party.

As a talented and ambitious black politician, Booker has elicited predictable comparisons to former President Barack Obama, whom he endorsed during the 2008 primary and campaigned for in 2012.

Booker has acknowledged the trope and jokes about it, but he doesn't neatly fit the mold. Whereas Obama often was guarded and serious, Booker is an extrovert whose unbridled enthusiasm and brimming energy can seem almost comical.

Booker also did not take the express lane to a presidential bid, as Obama did. Instead, he served nearly eight years as mayor, passing on an opportunity to lead Obama's Office of Urban Affairs in 2009, before successfully running for Senate in 2013 in a special election following the death of Sen. Frank Lautenberg.

Booker will be up for re-election in New Jersey in 2020; state law would permit him to run for Senate and president simultaneously.

Booker's core message has remained consistent over many years in politics -- with a focus on love and unity that undergirds everything else.

In some ways, Booker is a political heir to former President Jimmy Carter, who in the aftermath of the Nixon administration pledged a government "as good and honest and decent and compassionate and filled with love as are the American people." Booker recently described Carter as a "moral (giant) in America" and a model for "what I want my message to be in leadership." Carter, for his part, had urged Booker to run for president.

Sen. Kamala Harris of California, who seems poised to be one of Booker's chief rivals, also embraced some of Carter's signature themes in her debut rally last week, repeatedly invoking the Carter-esque term "truth."

But Booker makes a distinctly emotional appeal, with soaring, often sermon-like oratory. Last year, he said he doesn't know if he has tapped into "a winning political message or not, but I will always be talking about trying to unify this country, trying to bring us together."

And he has not been cowed by steep political odds before.

"He's a person who operates between instincts, gut and faith," said Rep. Cedric Richmond, a Louisiana Democrat who's the most recent former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. "What he did when he decided to take on an incumbent mayor, I think he's driven more by faith and purpose than politics."</s>On Friday, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), former mayor of Newark, entered the Democratic presidential race, just as Virginia’s Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam’s political career was exploding. A page of Northam’s medical school yearbook containing a photograph of a man in blackface and another in Ku Klux Klan garb was unearthed only hours after Booker — a single African American man — joined the most diverse major-party presidential field in history. Northam’s yearbook was a reminder of a depraved, widespread mind-set that existed two decades after the Civil Rights Act’s passage. In the Democratic Party, unlike the Republican Party, racism gets no sanctuary. The Democratic Party of 2019 simply will not abide by a white governor’s racist play-acting, even accounting for the passage of 35 years.

Booker and other presidential contenders, as well as liberal Democratic groups and state Democrats, found Northam’s apology, which initially left unclear if Northam was the man dressed as a Klansman or the man in blackface, entirely insufficient. (“I am deeply sorry for the decision I made to appear as I did in this photo and for the hurt that decision caused then and now,” Northam said Friday. “This behavior is not in keeping with who I am today and the values I have fought for throughout my career in the military, in medicine, and in public service.”) Northam later denied he was either person in the photo and insisted in a news conference Saturday that he had never even seen the photograph before it was shown to him Friday. But he admitted that he “darkened” his face with shoe polish to dress as Michael Jackson for a dance contest in the same year, 1984. His career lies in tatters, and his nearly inevitable political demise hangs over the commonwealth.

Republicans who piled on were harshly rebuked by Democrats and pundits who asked why they had not similarly demanded President Trump and Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) to resign. The Democratic Party ostracizes Northam in a way that Republicans — no matter how many racist comments Trump and King made — can never unequivocally do. The sad fact is that the GOP harbors a narrow stratum of racists and a wider stratum of those who tolerate them; the Democratic Party relies on an increasingly diverse electorate.

Booker’s presidential candidacy in all likelihood will last longer than Northam’s tenure as governor. Booker got positive reviews among Democrats for his splashy introductory ad, upbeat message of unity and progressive agenda including, as The Post reported, “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.” In addition, his “sweeping criminal justice reform plans include legalizing marijuana, reducing workplace discrimination against those who have been convicted of crimes, 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, aides said.”

Why should Democrats go with Booker — and not Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D- N.Y.) or any of the other possible contenders? There are other candidates as charismatic as Booker (Harris) and as ambitious. There are candidates equally if not more wonky (Warren). Booker does bring a sunny, almost giddy optimism. No candidate uses “love” with greater frequency. The question arises, however, as to whether that tone — lacking the sharp edges of Warren and the righteous anger of Harris — is what the party wants. Booker will need to show he can land a punch and deflect what surely will be the onslaught of Trumpian insults and attacks. He must eschew showboating and self-parody. (Spartacus must not be mentioned.)

For now, however, his candidacy underscores the future of his party surely as does Northam’s humiliation and one, hopes, Northam’s swift departure. Unfortunately, it also reminds us that only one party has definitively and absolutely turned its back on a history of racism.</s>New Jersey Senator Cory Booker has joined those vying to become the Democratic candidate for president in 2020.Booker launched a website for his run on Friday morning amid speculation that he would join the race.Booker, the state's first African-American senator, is the ranking member of the Senate Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and serves on multiple other committees.</s>U.S. Sen. Cory Booker on Friday declared his bid for the presidency in 2020 with a sweeping call to unite a deeply polarized nation around a "common purpose."

The New Jersey Democrat, who is the second black candidate in a primary field that's already historically diverse, delivered his message of unity amid an era marked by bitter political division. He announced his run on the first day of Black History Month, underscoring his consequential status as America's potential second black president after Barack Obama.

"I believe that we can build a country where no one is forgotten, no one is left behind; where parents can put food on the table; where there are good-paying jobs with good benefits in every neighborhood; where our criminal justice system keeps us safe, instead of shuffling more children into cages and coffins; where we see the faces of our leaders on television and feel pride, not shame," Booker said in a video message to supporters, subtly jabbing at President Donald Trump.

"It is not a matter of can we, it's a matter of do we have the collective will, the American will?" he added. "I believe we do."

U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), center, president of the South Carolina NAACP chapter, Brenda Murphy, right, and South Carolina Rep. Annie McDonald (D-Fairfield), left, walk up the statehouse steps during the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day at the Dome event on January 21, 2019 in Columbia, South Carolina.

Booker enters what's shaping up to be a crowded presidential primary, with three of his fellow Democratic senators — Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kamala Harris of California and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York — already either declared or exploring a run. But he's spent months telegraphing his intentions to join the race, visiting the early-voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina to build connections with key powerbrokers. He already has slated trips back to those states later this month.

Booker also will begin reaching out to key constituencies Friday, conducting call-in interviews with three radio shows popular with black and Hispanic listeners. Later on Friday, Booker will be a guest on "The View," a TV talk show popular with female audiences, where his mother plans to sit in the audience.

A former mayor of Newark, New Jersey's largest city, Booker won a special Senate election in 2013 to replace Democrat Frank Lautenberg and then won a full Senate term in 2014. He will be able to run for a second full Senate term in 2020 while running for president, thanks to a law that New Jersey's governor signed in November.

But that doesn't mean the 49-year-old's path to the nomination will be easy. As many as five more Democratic senators could soon mount their own primary bids, creating a competition for voters' attention, and several of Booker's rival presidential hopefuls bring higher name recognition to a race that may also feature popular former Vice President Joe Biden. Booker also will likely stand alone as an unmarried candidate, though he brings a compelling personal biography that could help elevate his message of bringing Americans together around what he described as "common purpose."

Booker's father grew up in a low-income community in North Carolina, and the senator has recalled his family's later struggle to settle in suburban New Jersey amid discrimination against black homebuyers. The senator has brought a heartfelt and passionate style to his achievements in the Senate, at times fusing his personal spirituality with policy proposals that focus on social justice. Booker played a key role in the bipartisan criminal justice reform bill that Trump supported last year, for example, a deal he helped strike two months after sparring with Republicans during the battle over Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation.

In his announcement video, Booker invoked the fight against slavery and the role of immigration in building the nation's character.

"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," he said.

Born in the nation's capital but raised in New Jersey, Booker made a name for himself as Newark mayor by personally shoveling the snow of residents. He has $4.1 million left in his campaign coffers that could also be used to assist his presidential run. Rather than opening an exploratory committee to test the waters, Booker took the direct step to open a campaign seeking the Democratic nomination.

Booker is aligning with many other prominent Democratic White House contenders by forswearing all donations from corporate political action committees and federal lobbyists to his campaign, dubbed Cory 2020. A prominent Booker supporter, San Francisco attorney Steve Phillips, says he is working on millions of dollars in committed donations to a so-called super PAC that would boost the senator's candidacy, but Booker's campaign is openly against super PACs playing any role in the presidential race.</s>U.S. Sen. Cory Booker on Friday declared his bid for the presidency in 2020 with a sweeping call to unite a deeply polarized nation around a "common purpose."

The New Jersey Democrat, who is the second black candidate in a primary field that's already historically diverse, delivered his message of unity amid an era marked by bitter political division. He announced his run on the first day of Black History Month, underscoring his consequential status as America's potential second black president after Barack Obama.

"I believe that we can build a country where no one is forgotten, no one is left behind; where parents can put food on the table; where there are good-paying jobs with good benefits in every neighborhood; where our criminal justice system keeps us safe, instead of shuffling more children into cages and coffins; where we see the faces of our leaders on television and feel pride, not shame," Booker said in a video message to supporters, subtly jabbing at President Donald Trump.

"It is not a matter of can we, it's a matter of do we have the collective will, the American will?" he added. "I believe we do."

Booker enters what's shaping up to be a crowded presidential primary, with three of his fellow Democratic senators — Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kamala Harris of California and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York — already either declared or exploring a run. But he's spent months telegraphing his intentions to join the race, visiting the early-voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina to build connections with key powerbrokers. He already has slated trips back to those states later this month.

Booker began reaching out to key constituencies Friday, calling in to three radio shows popular with black and Hispanic listeners. He spoke in fluent Spanish during his interview with Univision, vowing to work closely with "the Latino community," and discussed his support for marijuana legalization in another interview. Later on Friday, Booker will be a guest on "The View," a TV talk show popular with female viewers, where his mother plans to sit in the audience.

A former mayor of Newark, New Jersey's largest city, Booker won a special Senate election in 2013 to replace Democrat Frank Lautenberg and then won a full Senate term in 2014. He will be able to run for a second full Senate term in 2020 while running for president, thanks to a law that New Jersey's governor signed in November.

But that doesn't mean the 49-year-old's path to the nomination will be easy. As many as five more Democratic senators could soon mount their own primary bids, creating a competition for voters' attention, and several of Booker's rival presidential hopefuls bring higher name recognition to a race that may also feature popular former Vice President Joe Biden.

U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), center, president of the South Carolina NAACP chapter, Brenda Murphy, right, and South Carolina Rep. Annie McDonald (D-Fairfield), left, walk up the statehouse steps during the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day at the Dome event on January 21, 2019 in Columbia, South Carolina.

The affable Booker, known for his fluency in connecting with voters during an age of selfies and social media, also could face some difficulty winning the hearts of the Democratic base due to his past financial ties to banking and pharmaceutical interests. Booker said he would stop taking contributions from pharmaceutical companies in 2017, the year that he partnered with potential presidential rival Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont on a bill that would allow importation of prescription drugs from Canada.

He also likely will stand alone as an unmarried candidate, though he brings a compelling personal biography that could help elevate his message that "the only way we can make change is when people come together."

Booker's father grew up in a low-income community in North Carolina, and the senator has recalled his family's later struggle to settle in suburban New Jersey amid discrimination against black homebuyers. The senator has brought a heartfelt and passionate style to his achievements in the Senate, at times fusing his personal spirituality with policy proposals that focus on social justice. Booker played a key role in the bipartisan criminal justice reform bill that Trump supported last year, for example, helping strike that deal two months after sparring with Republicans during the battle over Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation.

In his announcement video, Booker invoked the fight against slavery and the role of immigration in building the nation's character.

"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," he said.

Born in the nation's capital but raised in New Jersey, Booker made a name for himself as Newark mayor by personally shoveling the snow of residents. He has $4.1 million left in his campaign coffers that could also be used to assist his presidential run. Rather than opening an exploratory committee to test the waters, Booker took the direct step to open a campaign seeking the Democratic nomination.

Booker is aligning with many other prominent Democratic White House contenders by forswearing all donations from corporate political action committees and federal lobbyists to his campaign, dubbed Cory 2020. A prominent Booker supporter, San Francisco attorney Steve Phillips, says he is working on millions of dollars in committed donations to a so-called super PAC that would boost the senator's candidacy, but Booker's campaign is openly against super PACs playing any role in the presidential race.

Booker visited his local congregation at Metropolitan Baptist Church in Newark on Thursday night for prayers ahead of his Friday announcement, a decision that underscores the role his faith will play in his campaign. He has attended service at the church since moving to Newark in 1996.

Booker's campaign manager will be Addisu Demissie, who managed California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom's campaign last year and previously worked on Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential bid. His deputy campaign manager, Jenna Lowenstein, is also a veteran of Clinton's 2016 campaign, while his current Senate chief of staff, Matt Klapper, will serve as a senior campaign adviser.</s>U.S. Sen. Cory Booker is running for president in 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Sen. Cory Booker on Friday declared his bid for the presidency in 2020 with a sweeping call to unite a deeply polarized nation around a "common purpose."

The New Jersey Democrat, who is the second black candidate in a primary field that's already historically diverse, delivered his message of unity amid an era marked by bitter political division.

"I believe that we can build a country where no one is forgotten, no one is left behind; where parents can put food on the table; where there are good-paying jobs with good benefits in every neighborhood; where our criminal justice system keeps us safe, instead of shuffling more children into cages and coffins; where we see the faces of our leaders on television and feel pride, not shame," Booker said in the video, subtly jabbing at President Donald Trump.

"It is not a matter of can we, it's a matter of do we have the collective will, the American will?" he added. "I believe we do."

Booker enters what's shaping up to be a crowded presidential primary, with three of his fellow Democratic senators — Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kamala Harris of California and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York — already either declared or exploring a run. But he's spent months telegraphing his intentions to join the race, visiting the early-voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina to build connections with key powerbrokers.

Booker, a former mayor of Newark, New Jersey's largest city, won a special Senate election in 2013 to replace Democrat Frank Lautenberg and then won a full Senate term in 2014. He will be able to run for a second full Senate term in 2020 while running for president, thanks to a law that New Jersey's governor signed in November.

But that doesn't mean the 49-year-old's path to the nomination will be easy. As many as five more Democratic senators could soon mount their own primary bids, creating a competition for voters' attention, and several of Booker's rival presidential hopefuls bring higher name recognition to a race that may also feature popular former Vice President Joe Biden. Booker also will likely stand alone as an unmarried candidate, though he brings a compelling personal biography that could help elevate his message of bringing Americans together around what he described as "common purpose."

Booker's father grew up in a low-income community in North Carolina, and the senator has recalled his family's later struggle to settle in suburban New Jersey amid discrimination against black homebuyers. The senator has brought a heartfelt and passionate style to his achievements in the Senate, at times fusing his personal spirituality with policy proposals that focus on social justice. Booker played a key role in the bipartisan criminal justice reform bill that Trump supported last year, for example, a deal he helped strike two months after sparring with Republicans during the battle over Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation.

In his announcement video, Booker invoked the fight against slavery and the role of immigration in building the nation's character.

"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," he said.

Born in the nation's capital but raised in New Jersey, Booker made a name for himself as Newark mayor by personally shoveling the snow of residents. He has $4.1 million left in his campaign coffers that could also be used to assist his presidential run. Rather than opening an exploratory committee to test the waters, Booker took the direct step to open a campaign seeking the Democratic nomination.</s>- U.S. Sen. Cory Booker is running for president in 2020.

The New Jersey Democrat made the announcement Friday in a video message to supporters, emphasizing a return to American unity in an era of deep political divisions.

Booker enters a crowded presidential primary field that includes three of his fellow senators and could soon include three more. The 49-year-old visited Iowa and New Hampshire in October, an early indication of his intentions to challenge President Donald Trump.

Booker is a former Newark mayor. He won a special election to the Senate in 2013 and won a full term in 2014. He will be able to run for a second Senate term in 2020 as well as run for president thanks to a law that New Jersey's governor signed in November.</s>Democratic New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker used the first day of Black History Month to announce his candidacy for the White House in the 2020 presidential election.

A video he released to mark the announcement suggested race will be a major theme of his campaign.

“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 the video.

“Together, we will channel our common pain back into our common purpose. Together, America, we will rise,” he continues.

“I believe that we can build a country where no one is forgotten, no one is left behind; where parents can put food on the table; where there are good paying jobs with good benefits in every neighborhood; where our criminal justice system keeps us safe, instead of shuffling more children into cages and coffins; where we see the faces of our leaders on television and feel pride, not shame,” he said.

Booker, the former mayor of Newark, New Jersey, faces a Democratic primary field that already includes Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kamala Harris of California, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who ran for president in 2016, is also expected to test the waters again.

The Democratic presidential field is likely to continue to grow, with speculation that former Vice President Joe Biden and a host of former Obama administration officials and major city political leaders will give the 2020 nomination a try, NPR reported.

Booker receives single-digit support in most early opinion polls, placing him in the middle of the pack of Democratic candidates, according to RealClearPolitics.

Booker is planning to address his standing by traveling to key early states including Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, according to CNN.

“If Cory Booker is the future of the Democratic Party, they have no future! I know more about Cory than he knows about himself,” Trump tweeted during his 2016 presidential campaign.

Booker, in his announcement video, said he stands apart because he is “the only senator who goes home to a low-income, inner city community.” He called Newark “the first community that took a chance on me.”

Booker rose to rhetorical heights during the bruising confirmation battle over Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

“There are no bystanders,” Booker said, after calling the effort to block Kavanaugh a “moral moment.”

Booker argued that the accusations against Kavanaugh were sufficient grounds for him to be disqualified from the judicial position, despite the fact that the accusations were unsubstantiated.

“(U)ltimately, not whether he’s innocent or guilty, this is not a trial, but ultimately have enough questions been raised that we should not move on to another candidate,” he said.

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U.S. Democratic New Jersey Senator Cory Booker announces that he is running for the office of the presidency in the 2020 presidential election.