Sen. Cory Booker’s, D-N.J. entry into the race earlier this year didn’t fool anyone — few political pundits predicted that he had a shot a winning the presidency.
And even Booker has seen the writing on the wall.
CNN reports that Booker is just days away from shutting down his presidential campaign — unless he and his team generate some big money, and fast.
“We got in this race to win it,” Addisu Demissie told a group of reporters, “and if we cannot raise the $1.7 million to scale up our operation, then we don’t believe that we are going to be in a position to compete for the nomination.”
Booker and his team need to raise $1.7 million before the end of Q3 — just one week away. Technically, he has still qualified for the Oct. 12 Democratic debate. But without the fundraising goal, his campaign seems to think there’s no need for him to show up.
“If you believe in my voice and want it on the stage and want it part of this process, if you believe in me as the nominee this is the time,” Booker said on a recent appearance on CNN. That the former mayor of Newark found himself in this position couldn’t have come as a surprise.
His national poll numbers were miserable.
They always had been.
He’s even polling lower than California billionaire Tom Steyer in Nevada, a relatively unknown candidate who joined the Democratic race just recently.
Booker would join a growing list of Democrats that have already dropped out of the race — Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, and New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio to name a few.
But Booker would be the most high-profile candidate to drop out.
The New Jersey lawmaker was once seen as the heir apparent to former President Barack Obama by Democratic insiders.
He’s just one week away from the end of that longshot dream.
The Horn editorial team