AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Texans might be seeing a lot more of Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., this year.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s because the erstwhile presidential candidate is pledging to do everything he can to help his party\u2019s Senate candidate in Texas \u2014 James Talarico.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am excited about Talarico because he\u2019s a next-generation candidate, and I\u2019ve been saying we need new leaders,\u201d Booker told Spectrum News. \u201cThis is a renewal of the American spirit and that\u2019s why I\u2019m such a big supporter of Talarico because he\u2019s not easily put into a left-right box. He\u2019s a Texan that\u2019s going to stand up and fight for Texans, especially working folks who have been screwed in this economy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Booker visited Texas to give the keynote speech at the inaugural KUT Festival put on by the city\u2019s public radio station.<\/p>\n
Speaking in front of the Lyndon B. Johnson Library, Booker lamented the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s ruling earlier in the week that weakened the Voting Rights Act by creating a higher bar for challenging legislative districts for racial discrimination.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is very problematic and what we\u2019re going to see now is more partisan gerrymandering, more squeezing out the voices of minorities in our country,\u201d he said. \u201cIn a democracy, the power of the people is greater than the people in power\u2014if they can vote. What\u2019s twisted is when the people in power try to restrict the right to vote and restrict representation, and that\u2019s what we have now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Booker said he’s concerned that states are racing to redraw their maps for the November elections to give them partisan advantages. But he remains confident Democrats can take back the U.S. House of Representatives.<\/p>\n
He said Americans, regardless of party affiliation, need to make their voices heard in November to push back against politicians trying to draw political lines to their advantage.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really have to focus on this election and coming out and showing those people who want to subvert democracy that we\u2019re going to actually beat you and overcome again, just like we did in the 1960s when LBJ signed the great Voting Rights Act,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Booker also said he has not made any decisions about another run for the presidency in 2028 and was focused on his reelection campaign for the Senate this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s still something that I\u2019ll think about\u00a0\u00a0\u2014 putting my hat in to be that kind of leader\u00a0\u00a0\u2014 but right now I\u2019m focused on New Jersey and taking back the Senate and having people like Talarico win,\u201d said Booker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Texans might be seeing a lot more of Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., this year. That\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[6329,1657,1658,132,134,133,6328,1570,62638,287,27,1569,835],"class_list":["post-278269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-app-capital-tonight","tag-app-latest-local-state-politics-stories","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-capital-tonight","tag-ctv","tag-james-barragan","tag-politics","tag-texas","tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}