Subscribe
HipHopWired Featured Video
CLOSE

Newark Mayor Cory Booker announced that he will run for Senate in place of late New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg. The New Jersey politician announced the move during a press conference Saturday (June 8).

Lautenberg 89, died earlier last week leaving a vacancy that caught the eye of the eager mayor, who has been serving Newark for seven years. Booker, who’s popular on Twitter with over 1 million followers,  can potentially win the seat off national eminence and political charisma, if it doesn’t work against him. The 44-year-old praised Lautenberg for his leadership and impact, a way in which he plans to  approache the candidacy. “Democracy is not a spectator sport, but now as much as in any time, we must bring people together,”  Booker said during the news conference. “We must actually get into the complicated difficult messy arena and take on the difficult challenges, work in uncommon ways with conviction and courage.”

Two new polls released Monday (June 10) showed Booker is ahead of the game with favoritism gained for the Democratic nomination. He has support from more than 50 percent of Democratic voters in the Rutgers-Eagleton and Quinnipiac University surveys, which is the first poll to be released in the forthcoming election. Booker will face off against Congressmen Frank Pallone and Rush Holt,  as well as Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver who joined the race Monday (June 10).

 New Jersey Attorney General, Jeff Chisea was sworn in to serve as the interim replacement to Lautenberg. If Booker win’s the election he will sit on the seat for the remainder of Lautenberg’s term, which ends in January 2015.

Photo: