A little love on the campaign trail - Rosario Dawson dating Cory Booker

[March 15, 2019]    By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actress Rosario Dawson, whose film credits include "Rent" and "Men in Black II," has confirmed reports she is dating U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Cory Booker, calling him "a wonderful human being" who she loves and admires.

Actor Rosario Dawson is pictured in Los Angeles, California, U.S., in February 4, 2017, and Democratic 2020 U.S. presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) is pictured in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, U.S., February 16, 201 in this combination photograph. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni, Yuri Gripas/File Photo

Dawson, 39, went public about her relationship with the New Jersey Democrat in an on-camera interview with the celebrity news website TMZ.com as she was strolling through Reagan National Airport near Washington. The video was posted on Thursday.

Asked if there was any truth to recent media reports that she was involved with the 49-year-old bachelor politician, Dawson gamely replied, "Yes, very much so."

"He's a wonderful human being. It's great to spend time together when we can," she said.

Asked whether an engagement might be on the horizon, she said, "I have no idea. I'm just grateful to be to be with someone that I respect and love and admire so much who is so brilliant and kind and caring and loving."

The New York Post reported in January that the actress and former Newark, New Jersey, mayor had been seeing each other since at least December 2018.

Neither Booker nor his representatives were immediately available for comment. Asked during a radio interview last month about how his bachelor status might play in the presidential race, Booker said he was "dating somebody now who's very special." Questioned whether she would make a "nice first lady," he replied, "Yes, she would."

The senator, who gained national prominence in the fight over Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation, formally launched his presidential campaign on Feb. 1, joining a crowded field of Democrats seeking their party's nomination for the White House in 2020.

Booker initially won his Senate seat in a 2013 special election, and then was re-elected to a full six-year term in 2014. He became the second African-American to enter the 2020 presidential race, after fellow Democratic Senator Kamala Harris of California.

Dawson, a native New Yorker of Puerto Rican and Cuban ancestry, made her film debut in the 1995 indie drama "Kids." Her movie credits include two Spike Lee dramas - "He Got Game" and "25th Hour" - "Sin City," "Josie and the Pussycats" along with "Rent" and "Men in Black II."

(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; Editing by Tom Brown)

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