July 05, 2017
Will Cory Booker be throwing his hat in the ring for the 2020 presidential race?
It's not clear. The U.S. senator from New Jersey has been widely speculated as a potential candidate, but he won't say for sure if he'll run.
Booker was on "The Axe Files," a podcast from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN with David Axelrod, earlier this week when the inevitable subject was brought up.
"I don't know what the future's going to bring," Booker said. "I'm not making predictions, but I want to unleash the fullness of who I am right now, and I want to call out injustice where I see it."
Booker, who is widely known for his social media presence, told Axelrod that he's more concerned about fulfilling his current duties in the Garden State.
"I'm a guy that's going to criticize policies that, frankly, in a lot of states that are important for presidential elections would find that very much of a threat," he said. "My loyalty is to the position I'm in right now."
Last week, Booker livestreamed a sit-in along with U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to push against the GOP-led health care plan, the vote for which was later delayed.
He's been very vocal against Donald Trump in the past as well, even bringing up the potential for the president's impeachment on Twitter earlier in June.
A recent poll shows that people would be on board with a Booker run in 2020. The survey from the Morning Consult/Politico found that 37 percent of Democrats favor Booker as Trump's challenger out of a list of 19 possible candidates.
"I think that politicians make a terrible mistake if they're thinking about aspirations for another office, because I think it undermines their integrity where they are," Booker said during the interview.
Listen to Booker's appearance on "The Axe Files" here.
