Democrat · New Jersey Senate · 2026
Cory Booker
Booker's parents needed help from volunteer lawyers to buy a house in a New Jersey neighborhood where Black buyers faced discrimination.
Biography
Cory Booker's November 2025 wedding to Alexis Lewis featured three cake flavors: almond and raspberry, chocolate with ganache and Funfetti.1 Earlier, at Stanford, he played varsity football, volunteered at the campus peer counseling center and wrote for the student newspaper.2 He and his wife now live in Newark.3
Raised in northern New Jersey, Booker studied at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and graduated from Yale Law School in 1997.2 He moved to Newark to provide legal assistance to families with low incomes and lived in the Brick Towers housing complex until its demolition in 2006.2 His public career progressed from city council to mayor, then the Senate after a 2013 special election.2
Booker helped negotiate the First Step Act, a bipartisan federal sentencing and prison reform law signed by President Trump in December 2018.45 In 2025, he held the Senate floor for 25 hours and five minutes protesting Trump administration policies, setting the individual speech record.6
His 2026 Keep Your Pay proposal would increase the standard tax deduction to $75,000 for married couples filing together and expand the Child Tax Credit.7 He proposes funding it by closing tax loopholes used by wealthy individuals and large corporations.7 He faces Republican Justin Murphy on November 3, seeking another six year Senate term in an election affecting control of the chamber.3
Record and controversies
Newark watershed nonprofit oversight
A 2019 Associated Press review described corruption at Newark's watershed nonprofit during Booker's mayoralty and the state comptroller's criticism of his administration's oversight.8 AP reported no evidence that Booker personally benefited financially; his campaign said employees and contractors concealed the fraud from auditors and defended his handling of the agency.8