‘I’m going to continue to be a voice in this country’: Cory Booker speech sparks speculation about 2020

By Jay Scott Smith

·October 7, 2018

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) (C) talks with reporters during a news conference with Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) (L), Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) (R) following the weekly Senate Democratic policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol October 02, 2018 in Washington, DC. Senate GOP leaders agreed last week with the Judiciary Committee to allow the FBI to conduct a one-week investigation into sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh before the Senate votes on his confirmation. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

On a day that featured one of the lowest moments in recent U.S. History, U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) left a stage in Des Moines, Iowa, to cheers and thoughts of 2020.

“You are never defined in life by what happens to you,” Booker told the crowd of 1,200 at the Iowa Democratic Party’s annual gala, according to NJ.com. “You’re defined by how you respond.”

“I decided to change what I was going to share with you, once I decided I knew what the outcome was going to be,” said Booker, who voted against confirming Brett Kavanaugh before traveling to Des Moines.

Amidst it all:

Let us not

Curl up,

Shut up, or

Give up

Let us continue

To stand up

To speak up

To rise up

To never, ever give up. #Midterms

— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) October 7, 2018

Booker, who was born in D.C. and grew up in Herrington Park, N.J., spoke of his Black grandmother who lived in the integrated rural Iowa town of Buxton and his parents’ path into New Jersey.

Booker also put over the importance of electing women into statewide and national offices. Deidre DeJear is currently running to become the first Black woman to be Iowa’s secretary of state, while Abbie Finkenauer, who at 28 would be the youngest woman ever elected to Congress.

“We’re not defined by a President who does not believe women,” Booker said, “We’re gonna be defined when this state not only says that we believe women, but that we elect women.”

The Iowa event, much like the Iowa caucuses, carries a lot of weight. It was at the event in 2007 where then-Illinois Senator Barack Obama made a similarly stirring speech that served to kick off his run to the Presidency.

“You don’t give a speech like that unless you’re running for president,” Scott Brennan, Iowa Democratic National Committee member and a former state party chairman, told Politico afterward.

Scott Thompson, a 56-year-old State of Iowa economist and Democratic volunteer, thought that Booker became a serious 2020 contender last night and while he may not be set on who he would go for, he was clear in what he didn’t want.

“He got my attention tonight,” Thompson told NJ.com. “I wanted to see the personal side to Booker and I got it.

Thompson added of the 49-year-old Booker: “I’ve already decided I can’t support any white guy older than me.”

Talking to reporters after the event, Booker said of Donald Trump, according to Politico: “I will never let him pull me so low as to hate him. I’m going to continue to be a voice in this country for the love, for bringing the nation together, not driving the nation apart.”