Black History

Sen. Cory Booker Announces 2020 Run for the White House

NNPA NEWSWIRE — “I believe that we can build a country where no one is forgotten, no one is left behind, where parents can put food on the table. Where there are good paying jobs with good benefits in every neighborhood. Where our criminal justice system keeps us safe, instead of shuffling more children into cages and coffins. Where we see the faces of our leaders on television and feel pride, not shame,” said Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, during a video announcing his bid for President of the United States.

Published

6 years ago

February 1, 2019

Oakland Post

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Contributor

Though much of the 2020 Election attention this week went to former Starbucks Coffee executive Howard Schultz, the end of the week held a surprise entry: Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey.

It was widely expected that Sen. Booker would run, the former mayor of Newark with a high-flying social media presence and an affable personality has been rumored to be a contender for the White House for years.

Booker, 49, is likely to project an upbeat positive tone at a time when President Donald Trump is winning comparisons to some of the worst presidents in U.S. history. If either Senators Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) or Booker win the White House, they would become the second African American president in history, after Barack Obama.

Booker announced his candidacy via a video called “Rise.” The video focuses on many of the issues he confronted as Mayor of Newark such as housing and poverty. The video’s narrative features the New Jersey Senator affirming that he still lives in the inner-city Newark.

“I still live there today, and I’m the only senator who goes home to a low-income, inner city community. The first community that took a chance on me,” Booker says in the announcement video.

“I believe that we can build a country where no one is forgotten, no one is left behind, where parents can put food on the table. Where there are good paying jobs with good benefits in every neighborhood. Where our criminal justice system keeps us safe, instead of shuffling more children into cages and coffins. Where we see the faces of our leaders on television and feel pride, not shame,” Booker continues.

Sen. Booker will join Sen. Harris, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), former Housing Secretary Julian Castro (D-Texas) and South Bend Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, have all announced that they will run for the White House in 2020.

Sen. Booker has already made stops in key primary states over the last few months. He now plans to travel more extensively as he joins the most diverse presidential field in American history.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent journalist and writer for NNPA as well as a political analyst and strategist as Principal of Win Digital Media LLC. She may be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke

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Oakland Post: Week of June 4 – 10, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 4-10, 2025

Published

4 days ago

June 7, 2025

Oakland Post

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Remembering George Floyd

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing.

Published

1 week ago

June 2, 2025

Oakland Post

Mural showing the portrait of George Floyd in Mauerpark in Berlin. To the left of the portrait the lettering "I can't Breathe" was added, on the right side the three hashtags #GeorgeFloyd, #Icantbreathe and #Sayhisname. The mural was completed by Eme Street Art (facebook name) / Eme Free Thinker (signature) on 29 May 2020. (Wikimedia Commons)

By April Ryan
BlackPressUSA Newswire

“The president’s been very clear he has no intentions of pardoning Derek Chauvin, and it’s not a request that we’re looking at,” confirms a senior staffer at the Trump White House. That White House response results from public hope, including from a close Trump ally, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The timing of Greene’s hopes coincides with the Justice Department’s recent decision to end oversight of local police accused of abuse. It also falls on the fifth anniversary of the police-involved death of George Floyd on May 25th. The death sparked national and worldwide outrage and became a transitional moment politically and culturally, although the outcry for laws on police accountability failed.

The death forced then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to focus on deadly police force and accountability. His efforts while president to pass the George Floyd Justice in policing act failed. The death of George Floyd also put a spotlight on the Black community, forcing then-candidate Biden to choose a Black woman running mate. Kamala Harris ultimately became vice president of the United States alongside Joe Biden. Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison prosecuted the cases against the officers involved in the death of Floyd. He remembers,” Trump was in office when George Floyd was killed, and I would blame Trump for creating a negative environment for police-community relations. Remember, it was him who said when the looting starts, the shooting starts, it was him who got rid of all the consent decrees that were in place by the Obama administration.”

In 2025, Police-involved civilian deaths are up by “about 100 to about 11 hundred,” according to Ellison. Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African-American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing. During those minutes on the ground, Floyd cried out for his late mother several times. Police subdued Floyd for an alleged counterfeit $20 bill.