Sen. Cory Booker, DN.J., on Sunday said he is not ruling out a presidential run in 2028, but said he is focused on running for re-election in the Senate this year.
Asked if he would be open to running for president, Booker told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that “it doesn’t matter,” but “I’m running for re-election. I hope New Jersey will support me for another six years.”
Booker has served in the Senate since 2013 and has already run for president once, in the 2020 presidential election cycle. That year, he resigned from the Democratic Alliance presidency in early January, citing a lack of funds to continue his campaign. Former Vice President at the time Joe Biden went on to win the Democratic presidential nomination and the presidency that year.
But Booker has fueled rumors over the past few years that he might not run again. The senator raised $10 million through his campaign account and a joint fundraising committee that included time after he delivered a record-breaking 25-hour, 5-minute speech on the Senate floor.
And last week, Booker released a new book, “Stand Up,” which he is promoting on a nationwide book tour, fueling speculation that he might run for president again in 2028.
His remarks on “Meet the Press” weren’t the first time he failed to rule out another presidential race, telling former Democratic Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison in February that he “hasn’t ruled out running for president again in ’28.”
Booker, who married his wife, Alexis Lewis, last year, said they both recognize it is “at stake” for future generations when asked if he would support a presidential campaign.
“I think they support us now that, first of all, we are both happy to be married and we hope for a family, but you know what is at stake,” said the senator.
He added later, “he and I are talking a lot, in the coming months, we just want to be part of the next generation of Americans who are helping to save the dream.”
Booker also spoke of his desire for the Democratic Party in 2028 to be unrestricted in enforcing purity tests and imposing ideological standards on candidates.
“I’m proud of the many things that my Democratic colleagues are doing, but as a whole, our party has failed at this moment,” Booker told “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker.
“This divisive left is killing our country, and our enemies know it. They’re taking to social media and trying to spread hate in America,” the New Jersey senator said. “That is one of our biggest problems. It is time to have a new vision of our country that is more inclusive, that unites people, that does not create division.”
Some Democrats have blamed opinion tests some left-leaning groups want Democratic presidential candidates to take in 2020 to get permission to derail former Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign two years ago.
The Trump campaign used one of Harris’ responses to an ACLU questionnaire in 2019 about providing sex care to inmates in prisons and immigration detention to run TV ads accusing the vice president of “owning them,” while “President Trump is all about you.”
Booker on Sunday also called on the Democratic Party to expand its priorities in opposition to President Donald Trump and his agenda.
“The challenges in space are not just a current problem created by Trump. He should not be the protagonist of our story,” Booker told Welker. “Right now, we have real challenges from new technologies like AI and robotics, new challenges that require more unity in our country and a reminder that we are not each other’s enemies.”
