Sen. Cory Booker’s campaign for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination has thus far been a bust.
It’s quite early, to be sure, and there is more than enough time for him to recover. But given that he’s one of the more prominent Democratic senators and has long been mentioned as a contender, his inability to gain traction since announcing his candidacy is at least noteworthy. After all, there have been a number of articles written focusing on Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s underwhelming performance in polls, but Booker consistently does worse than her.
Nationally, Booker, D-N.J., has been polling in a distant sixth place, averaging 3.2 percent in polls compiled by RealClearPolitics. The average has front-runner former Vice President Joe Biden at 29.8 percent, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., at 22.6 percent, Beto O’Rourke at 10 percent, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., at 9.6 percent, and Warren, D-Mass., at 5.8 percent.
One might be tempted to chalk up his poor performance to name recognition, but while that may part of the reason he isn’t polling near Biden or Sanders, it doesn’t explain why he is as far back as he is. A CNN poll released last week found that 34 percent of Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents hadn’t heard of Booker, which was about the same as the number who hadn’t heard of O’Rourke (33 percent). Yet in the same poll, O’Rourke was backed by 11 percent of Democratic voters, compared to just 3 percent who backed Booker. In the same poll in December, Booker was at 5 percent — meaning his numbers actually went down since his February announcement.
The numbers don’t get much better in polling of early primary states. In Iowa, a recent poll had Booker in sixth place, with 6 percent of the vote, while newcomer Buttigieg was at 11 percent. Other polls have had him in seventh in New Hampshire and a distant fourth in South Carolina (at 6 percent in a state where Biden leads with 37 percent).
It’s not immediately clear why Booker’s early candidacy has been such a dud. Some of it might be his difficulty finding a niche. Booker has at times positioned himself as a reasonable Democrat who can get along with Republicans, but at other times as a firebrand — as in his infamous “Spartacus” moment during the confirmation hearings for Justice Brett Kavanaugh. He’s tried to embrace popular liberal ideas, signing on to the Green New Deal and Sanders’ socialist health insurance program, branded as “Medicare for all,” but has been lapped by rivals.
In a long race with lots of news to emerge as well as unexpected moments, it would be silly to write off Booker, who still checks off a lot of boxes for Democratic voters. But, it is curious that his candidacy has gotten off to such a slow start as he’s struggled to find a place for himself in a crowded field.
