Booker is a senator with national celebrity status. He was called America’s superhero for dashing into a neighbor’s burning home in 2012, emerging with a woman who had been trapped in a back bedroom. He breaks bread with wealthy friends such as Oprah Winfrey, who dubbed him a “rock star,†and Ivanka Trump, daughter of Republican real estate mogul Donald Trump, who both hosted fundraisers for his Senate campaign in 2013.
Now Booker plans to use some of the media celebrity that helped make him a national figure and to focus on areas where agreement can be reached, For the past year, Booker had adopted a low profile media strategy since winning the special election to fill the remainder of the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s term. According to The Record, he reportedly turned down network appearances and shunned the Capitol Hill press as he learned Senate procedure and built relationships with colleagues.
Booker is progressive on social issues that have divided Congress. He supports women’s rights, same-sex marriage, immigration reform, and gun control. He favors a higher minimum wage, corporate tax reform, and greater college financial assistance. He also wants to spur job creation through infrastructure spending and increased manufacturing in the USA. And a major concern is criminal justice reform.
“There has been this emphasis on punishment and not rehabilitation,†Booker told BlackEnterprise.com. “America has become an incarceration nation. “I don’t think many people realize how much money we waste, how large our prison population is, largest in the world, a quarter of the world’s imprisoned people,†he added.
The pillars of a lot of Booker’s recommendations are around crime prevention, alternative courts for veterans and youth, drug treatment, and education. What’s unknown is whether Congress will focus on polarizing the President and to pursue initiatives that have led to gridlock in the past.