Cory Booker has suspended his presidential campaign — which is to say, he’s out — admitting that he no longer sees “a path to victory.”
The lack of adequate campaign funding, his failure to qualify for the last two Democratic presidential debates, and the timing of the Senate’s upcoming impeachment trial all contributed to Booker’s decision to drop out.
“Our campaign has reached the point where we need more money to scale up and continue building a campaign that can win — 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,” he said in a statement.
Booker was hoping for a late surge in Iowa, but last week’s poll showed no sign of improvement. And now that the Senate is getting ready to begin the impeachment trial of President Trump, Booker will not be able to campaign in the important primary states he’d need to remain in the race.
On paper, Booker was everything the Democratic base claims to want: a progressive minority with enough congressional experience to appease the establishment and policies that resemble those of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. And he did everything he could to gain national attention: He racked up endorsements, performed fairly well at the debates, and led a consistent, drama-free campaign team.
Still, Booker’s campaign failed to make a significant impression — on black voters, progressive voters, or older, establishment voters. Perhaps that’s because his message was so unoriginal. Even his signature policy, gun control, was associated more with Beto O’Rourke’s campaign than with Booker’s. And many of Booker’s other proposals have been dominated by Warren and Sanders.
Once he failed to make an impression on the issues, Booker pivoted to cultural wokeness. He’s blamed racism for the Trump phenomenon and pandered to the cultural Left by announcing his gender pronouns, and he still failed to win it over. Some Democratic voters said it’s because his sincerity felt too forced, as did his campaign. And as a result, very few will miss his campaign or even notice that it’s gone.
