--- title: Cory Booker Drops Out of 2020 Presidential Race description: Senator Cory Booker announced on Monday that he was dropping out of the 2020 Presidential race canonical: https://time.com/5763847/cory-booker-drops-out-presidential-race/ author: Philip Elliott article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-01-13T17:22:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T20:00:44.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Cory Booker Drops Out of 2020 Presidential Race og:description: Senator Cory Booker announced on Monday that he was dropping out of the 2020 Presidential race og:url: https://time.com/5763847/cory-booker-drops-out-presidential-race/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5020f7b272dd5551/698a08c2b21a9c0231502fe1/cory-booker-suspends-campaign.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: Cory Booker Campaigning in New Hampshire og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Cory Booker Drops Out of 2020 Presidential Race twitter:description: Senator Cory Booker announced on Monday that he was dropping out of the 2020 Presidential race twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5020f7b272dd5551/698a08c2b21a9c0231502fe1/cory-booker-suspends-campaign.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Cory Booker Ends His Presidential Bid, Citing Twin Pressures of Funding and Impeachment Trial > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=9bf1299b-5de4-475e-b4d3-4cb5eee3f9d7&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Meet the Democratic Candidates Running for President in 2020 [Watch (HLS stream): Meet the Democratic Candidates Running for President in 2020](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/EcGVhn6h.m3u8) (1:17)  _Published 2019-01-18. Meet the Democratic Candidates Running for President in 2020_  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Updated: Dec 12, 2023 8:00 PM UTCPublished: Jan 13, 2020 5:22 PM UTC Meet the Democratic Candidates Running for President in 2020  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Updated: Dec 12, 2023 8:00 PM UTCPublished: Jan 13, 2020 5:22 PM UTC Cory Booker’s presidential campaign launched with a flashy video, driven by a biography rooted in an optimism that should have found fertile soil in Iowa. He followed up with grind-it-out work on the ground in New Hampshire, where he racked up endorsements and packed venues. A speech on civil rights in South Carolina at an iconic African-American church tested by a massacre set him apart of a crowded field. Yet, on Monday, [Booker acknowledged the tough reality of 2020](https://time.com/longform/cory-booker-2020-presidential-campaign/) and ended his presidential bid, saying he no longer saw a path to victory or had the cash to pave its way. Booker was already set to be excluded from Tuesday night’s debate in Iowa, the last major gathering of contenders before the state’s Feb. 3 caucuses. Although he built a strong machine in Iowa, the latest Des Moines Register/ CNN poll released Friday put him at just 3% support — far short of the 15% threshold required to qualify for delegates. Money has been a persistent problem for Booker, who after years of taking campaign cash from drug makers and their executives swore off that lucrative stream last year. The looming impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, where Booker is set to be a juror by virtue of his Senate seat, only complicated his prospects of finding the time and resources to break through. “Our campaign has reached the point where we need more money to scale up and continue building a campaign that can win — money we don’t have, and money that is harder to raise because I won’t be on the [next debate stage](https://time.com/5615259/cory-booker-side-eye-beto-orourke-2020-debate/) and because the urgent business of impeachment will rightly be keeping me in Washington,” Booker said in an email to supporters on Monday morning. That looming impeachment business was the unknown challenge that wasn’t part of Booker’s original decision to run. Under expected Senate rules, Booker will be compelled to be at his Senate desk every afternoon, six days a week, for a trial of an unknown length. The trial, which could start as soon as this week, effectively sidelines Booker from the race. Running low on cash, flying private back and forth for morning or late-night rallies, just weren’t a viable options, and it’s hard to fill in the gaps with digital and broadcast ads. Booker’s exit is the latest of a string of Democratic campaigns that began with so much promise but petered out before the election year began in earnest. A first-term Senator who faces re-election later this year, Booker joins the likes of Senators Kamala Harris and Kirsten Gillibrand in ending marquee races, in addition to former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, and Congressmen Tim Ryan, Eric Swalwell and Seth Moulton. Others who had momentary flashes of potential, like self-help author Marianne Williamson, also failed to gain traction in the race’s wide field. Taken together, the winnowing of the Democratic field seems to run counter to what many expected when the cycle opened in the waning days of 2016 with the most diverse set of contenders in history. Today, the remaining frontrunners are all white. In Iowa, a cluster of 78-year-old Sen. Bernie Sanders, 70-year-old Sen. Elizabeth Warren, 37-year-old former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and 77-year-old former Vice President Joe Biden are clustered atop the field in Iowa. Polling gets more complicated elsewhere, but as Democrats repeatedly say that defeating Trump is more important than ideological choices, it seems they are seeking a candidate who more closely fits the mold of what previous nominees have looked and sounded like. Democrats may have also concluded that they weren’t ready to gamble with a Senator like Booker, whose national profile remains something of a blank page. Nevertheless, Booker ran a dynamic campaign, recruiting some of the sharpest minds in Democratic politics and assembling a formidable machinery that, at every test, proved itself well. [For a public speaker known to inspire](https://time.com/4421756/democratic-convention-cory-booker-transcript-speech/), his debate performances weren’t universally stellar, but they were far superior to the too-often flat deliveries from the likes of Biden and Sanders. Booker branded himself from the start as an optimistic, an early assessment of the Democratic field that was was spot-on. In the same Register/ CNN poll that showed only 3% backing for Booker, more than three-quarters of Democrats surveyed used the word “optimist” to describe themselves. Ultimately, however, Booker found that more than optimism would be required to start piecing together sufficient delegations to the Democrats’ nominating convention in Milwaukee this summer. But the 50-year-old alumnus of Stanford, Oxford and Yale Law is hardly done with politics. Republicans aren’t seriously contesting his Senate seat this fall, so Booker will have time to travel and support Democrats. His endorsement will be a coveted commodity and he already has signaled that he will campaign for candidates up and down the ballot this year. His ability to blow the doors off venues large and small will prove invaluable for those lucky enough to win his backing. ## Transcript Democrats are lining up to run against Donald Trump. [ MUSIC ] With the 2020 election still a ways away, an unusually large number of candidates have announced they are running or hinted strongly that they will. Here's a look at some of the major names who have joined the race so far. [ MUSIC ] As a law professor, Warren helped create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Before joining the Senate in 2012. She's long advocated for tougher rules on banks and corporations and pocketbook issues like student loan reform. A former member of the House from upstate New York, Gillibrand has moved to the left since taking Hillary Clinton's old Senate seat in 2009. In announcing her run, she cited her experience as a young mom. A former state legislator and US representative, Brown has represented Ohio in the Senate since 2006. He will be pushing a brand of Midwestern liberalism that mixes Trump's skepticism of trade agreements with Warren's concerns about Wall Street. An Iraq veteran and former state lawmaker, Gabbard was the first Hindu elected to Congress. But her past opposition to gay marriage and interactions with Syrian dictator Bashar al- Assad make her a long shot in the Democratic primary. [ MUSIC ] The former mayor of San Antonio and Housing and Urban Development secretary, Castro has an unusual resume for a presidential candidate. But he believes his arguments on hot- button issues like immigration can help him break out. 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