Cory Booker Bio
Cory Anthony Booker (born April 27, 1969) is an American politician and lawyer serving as the senior United States senator from New Jersey, a seat he has held since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, Booker is the first African-American United States senator from New Jersey. He is recognized for his work on criminal justice reform, urban policy, and bipartisan legislation, and he ran for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. Beyond politics, Booker gained national attention for personal acts of service during his time as mayor of Newark, where he led the city from 2006 to 2013.
Cory Booker
Early Life and Background
Cory Anthony Booker was born on April 27, 1969, in Washington, D.C., to Cary Alfred Booker and Carolyn Rose Jordan. His parents were among the first African-American executives at IBM, and he grew up in a family that valued education and public service. After his parents relocated for work with IBM, Booker was raised in Harrington Park, New Jersey, where he attended Northern Valley Regional High School at Old Tappan. As a young athlete, he earned recognition on the 1986 USA Today All-USA High School Football Team, an early signal of the discipline and competitive drive that would later shape his political career.
Following high school, Booker attended Stanford University, earning a Bachelor of Arts in 1991 and a Master of Arts in political science a year later. He continued his studies abroad as a Rhodes Scholar at The Queen’s College, Oxford, before enrolling at Yale Law School, where he earned his Juris Doctor. His academic path, blending policy training with legal education, prepared him for a career in public advocacy and elective office.
Path to US Politics
Booker’s entry into electoral politics began in 1998, when he won an upset seat on the Municipal Council of Newark for the Central Ward. During the campaign, he staged a 10-day hunger strike and briefly lived in a tent to draw attention to urban development issues, a dramatic approach that announced his commitment to grassroots organizing. In 2002, he challenged longtime incumbent Sharpe James for mayor of Newark and lost, but the experience established him as a rising figure in New Jersey politics. The contest was later chronicled in the Oscar-nominated documentary Street Fight, which brought Booker wider recognition.
He ran for mayor again in 2006 and won decisively against Deputy Mayor Ronald Rice, raising more than $6 million and capturing 72 percent of the vote. His slate of city council candidates, known as the Booker Team, swept the council elections, giving him firm leadership of city government. This victory set the stage for his transition from municipal politics to a national profile.
Cory Booker Career
Early Career (1998-2002)
Booker served on the Municipal Council of Newark for the Central Ward from 1998 to 2002, where he focused on neighborhood revitalization and accountability in city government. He sued the James administration over cut-rate land deals, arguing that the transactions violated pay-to-play laws and cost the city millions in lost revenue. A Superior Court judge ruled in Booker’s favor in June 2006, an early demonstration of his willingness to confront entrenched political interests.
During the same period, he founded the nonprofit organization Newark Now, which worked on local quality-of-life issues. His advocacy on housing, education, and crime drew media attention and laid the groundwork for his later runs for mayor.
Breakthrough (2006-2013)
Booker took office as the 38th mayor of Newark on July 1, 2006, after defeating Ronald Rice. In his first week, he unveiled a 100-day reform plan that included expanding the police force, ending certain background checks for city jobs, refurbishing police stations, and launching summer youth programs. He appointed Garry McCarthy, a former deputy commissioner of operations of the New York City Police Department, as director of the Newark Police Department, and personally patrolled city streets with his security team into the early morning hours.
Under Booker, Newark led the nation in violent crime reduction from 2006 to 2008, and March 2010 marked the city’s first murder-free month in more than four decades. He was a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition, received the 2009 Sarah Brady Visionary Award, and was twice honored with the Government Finance Officers Association’s Distinguished Budget Presentation Award in 2008 and 2009. His first term also saw the doubling of affordable housing under development, a quadrupling of housing in pre-development, and a reduction of the city budget deficit from $180 million to $73 million.
Beyond policy, Booker became known for personal acts of service that drew national attention. In April 2012, he saved a woman from a house fire, suffering smoke inhalation and second-degree burns on his hands. After Hurricane Sandy in late October 2012, he opened his home to Newarkers without electricity. He shoveled an elderly constituent’s driveway in December 2010, helped a nervous constituent propose to his girlfriend in February 2013, and rescued dogs from freezing temperatures and abandonment in 2013. These moments helped elevate him to a national political stage.
Democratic Party Era (2013-Present)
Booker resigned as mayor on October 30, 2013, and was sworn in the next day as a United States senator from New Jersey after winning the 2013 special election with 54.9 percent of the vote against Republican Steve Lonegan. He was the first African-American to be elected to the Senate since Barack Obama in 2004. He was reelected in 2014 against Jeff Bell and in 2020 against Rik Mehta, and he became New Jersey’s senior senator when Bob Menendez resigned on August 20, 2024. He has filed for reelection in 2026.
In the Senate, Booker has championed criminal justice reform, playing a leading role in passing the First Step Act, and in 2018 he introduced the Marijuana Justice Act to legalize cannabis at the federal level. He co-sponsored the Employment Non-Discrimination Act in 2013, voted for the Respect for Marriage Act in 2022, and introduced the Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act in 2018. He ran for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, suspending his campaign on January 13, 2020. He became the first sitting senator to testify against another senator during a cabinet confirmation hearing when he testified against attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions in January 2017. He has also served as a character witness for Bob Menendez and supported Menendez’s reelection.
Notable Events and Milestones
Booker’s most prominent recent milestone came on March 31, 2025, when he began a marathon speech on the Senate floor vowing to speak for as long as he was physically able. His address lasted 25 hours and five minutes, surpassing Strom Thurmond’s 24-hour-and-18-minute filibuster of the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and setting the record for the longest speech in United States Senate history. In 2018, Politico named him part of the Hell-No Caucus for his efforts to block Trump administration nominees, and in 2020 he was among the targets of a mailed pipe bomb sent to several Democratic critics of President Trump.
Cory Booker Career Wins
Booker’s political career is marked by a series of decisive election victories and major public service recognitions. He has won elections for the Newark Municipal Council, mayor of Newark, and three United States Senate contests, and he has received awards that reflect both his electoral success and his public service.
US Senate Highlights
Booker won the 2013 special election with 54.9 percent of the vote, the 2014 general election with 55.8 percent, and the 2020 general election with 57 percent. In 2010, he received the U.S. Senator John Heinz Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official, recognizing his work as mayor of Newark. In 2010, he was also a finalist for the World Mayor prize, placing seventh.
Other Wins and Achievements
As mayor, Booker won the 2006 election with 72 percent of the vote and the 2010 reelection with 59 percent. He received the Government Finance Officers Association’s Distinguished Budget Presentation Award in 2008 and 2009, the 2009 Sarah Brady Visionary Award, a 2009 Peabody Award for the documentary series Brick City, a 2010 Shorty Award in the government category, and an Emmy nomination in 2010. He was also named to the 1986 USA Today All-USA High School Football Team.
Cory Booker Family
Family Background and Public Service Lineage
Booker was born to Cary Alfred Booker and Carolyn Rose Jordan, both of whom were among the first African-American executives at IBM. His parents’ professional success and civic engagement helped shape his early commitment to public service and shaped his decision to pursue a career in law and politics.
Personal Life
Booker resides in Newark, New Jersey. He was in a relationship with actress Rosario Dawson from 2019 to 2022. In September 2025, he announced his engagement to Alexis Lewis, a senior vice president at Brasa Capital Management and former economic policy manager for the Los Angeles mayor’s Office of Economic Development. The couple married in a civil ceremony in Newark officiated by Judge Julien Neals on November 24, 2025, and later held an interfaith religious ceremony in Washington on November 29, 2025.