Senator Booker launches bid for 2020 presidential nomination

[February 01, 2019]    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey announced on Friday that he was launching a bid for the White House, aiming to be the Democratic Party's nominee for the 2020 presidential election.

U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) greets the audience at the United States Conference of Mayors winter meeting in Washington, U.S., January 24, 2019. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

Booker, 49, became the latest Democrat and the fourth U.S. senator to announce a presidential bid in what is expected to be a crowded race to be the candidate to try to unseat President Donald Trump.

"I believe that we can build a country where no one is forgotten, where no one is left behind," he said in a video on his website. He added that he would focus on creating good jobs and reforming the criminal justice system.

He announced his bid on the first day of Black History Month, mentioning on his website the impact of racial discrimination on his family and a video posted on it emphasized racial justice issues.

Booker is the second black American to decide to run, after U.S. Senator Kamala Harris of California.

Booker grew up in New Jersey, attended Stanford University and Yale Law School, and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship, before returning to New Jersey. In 2006, he became the mayor of New Jersey's largest city, Newark, before becoming a senator seven years later.

(Reporting by Makini Brice and Susan Heavey; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

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