Presidential hopeful Cory Booker makes several stops in Las Vegas
Democratic presidential hopeful Cory Booker returned to Las Vegas on Wednesday for a series of campaign events aimed at tapping the city’s diverse communities for support as he seeks to make up ground against a handful of candidates currently ahead in polls and fundraising.
The New Jersey senator told his audiences not to take too much stock in the polls, noting that the country’s last three Democratic presidents — Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama — were all getting trounced at this point in their eventually successful campaigns.
“The polls have never predicted (the nominee),” Booker told about 100 people gathered at Cheyenne High School in North Las Vegas during the last of his four events. “The people decided it.”
■ The Obama coalition: Booker, in separate events tailored to Asian-American and Pacific Islander, Latino and predominantly African-American crowds, said he was the best candidate to recreate the “rainbow” or “Obama” coalition and use it to defeat President Donald Trump.
He pledged to “create a table that everyone can sit at” during a meeting with about two dozen AAPI supporters.
Booker, a graduate of Stanford, Yale and Oxford, drew from history, poetry, pop culture and civil rights icons in his attempts to hammer this home to the modest crowds. He peppered in a few of his usual talking points on reforming education, immigration and criminal justice.
■ Impeachment changes the mood: News of Trump’s impeachment came just before Booker hit the stage for his final event. Booker and several of his fellow challengers are now in the strange position of having to campaign against Trump in their off-hours while potentially serving as his jurors during office hours.
The normally upbeat Booker took a somber tone when speaking both on stage and to the news media on the impeachment vote, calling it a “sobering” and “sad” day. He batted away a question on whether impeachment would affect his campaign, stressing that he swore an oath as a senator and planned to uphold it.
■ Dueling endorsements, or dual endorsements: Nevada Assemblywoman Selena Torres formally endorsed Booker after introducing him at a Latino roundtable — a week after endorsing former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro in the same race.
Booker’s campaign confirmed Torres is endorsing both candidates in what appears to be the state’s first “dual endorsement.”
Torres has said she was impressed with both candidates’ willingness to engage with Las Vegas’ diverse communities.
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Contact Rory Appleton at rappleton@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0276. Follow @RoryDoesPhonics on Twitter.
