Democratic New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker pressed his own party Sunday to overhaul its leadership, telling Democrats they are failing voters caught in a crisis of rising costs and lost health coverage with the midterms less than six months away.
Booker voiced long-running frustration with his party’s leadership during a CNN “State of the Union” interview. “The Democratic Party desperately needs new leadership,” Booker said. “I have had frustrations … with the Democratic Party for a long time.” (RELATED: Leaked DNC 2024 Autopsy A Case Study In Stunning Incompetence)
His remarks followed the release of a draft postmortem on the party’s 2024 election loss, the New York Post (NYP) reported. Veteran strategist Paul Rivera authored the document, which critics flagged for typos, missing sections, faulty data and absent citations. Progressives complained that it largely sidestepped the Israel-Hamas war and gave little weight to internal concerns about former President Joe Biden’s age.
DNC Chairman Ken Martin, who had pushed back against disclosure for months, conceded the document wasn’t “ready for primetime,” the NYP reported.
Booker pointed to three rising Democrats he believes represent the party’s future, according to The Hill. He named Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia, North Carolina Senate nominee Roy Cooper and Texas Senate nominee James Talarico as examples of candidates “stepping up and saying, ‘I don’t give a damn about parties. I care about people,’” Booker told CNN.
Asked whether he still has faith in Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, Booker would not give a direct answer. He instead warned against Democrats turning on each other. “What is going to make the Republicans gleeful is if we’re talking about each other in the Democratic Party and not talking about the realities that Americans are facing,” Booker said on the show.
Booker tied his frustration back to everyday economic pain later in the interview. “I am tired of all this machination about party politics. We are in a crisis right now, millions of Americans losing their health insurance, their costs skyrocketing,” Booker said on the show. He faces voters again in November.