Cory Booker drops out of US presidential race

His campaign focusing on social justice and community had struggled in polls and fundraising

Cory Booker has dropped out of the 2020 presidential race, just weeks before the Iowa caucuses.

In a video announcing his decision, the New Jersey senator could be seen in a series of clips delivering the type of uplifting and optimistic speeches that came to define his campaign since he announced his run last February.

"Today I'm suspending my campaign for president with the same spirit with which it began. It is my faith in us, my faith in us together as a nation, that we share common pain and common problems that can only be solved with a common purpose and a sense of common cause," Mr Booker said in the video.

Mr Booker's departure from the field leaves 13 Democrats in the 2020 race, with just three of those being minorities after a start to the 2020 election season that featured a burgeoning and historically diverse field.

The New Jersey senator had mounted a campaign that focused on a unifying message in a political moment marked for its divisiveness. While Mr Booker did not shy away from attacking the bogeyman in the Democratic Party, Donald Trump, he nevertheless spent a good chunk of his time on the campaign trail discussing the virtues of love and common community.

"I believed to my core that the answer to the common pain Americans are feeling right now, the answer to Donald Trump's hatred and division, is to reignite our spirit of common purpose to take on our biggest challenges and build a more just and fair country for everyone," Mr Booker said in a letter to his supporters announcing his withdrawal from the race.

It continued: "I've always believed that. I still believe that. I'm proud I never compromised my faith in these principles during this campaign to score political points or to tear down others."

Mr Booker's campaign had come under increasing financial stress in recent months, which the New Jersey senator was not shy about discussing in national media appearances where he pleaded for donations to keep his campaign alive.

But, as the race increasingly focused on top candidates like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden, Mr Booker's campaign was hit with the realities of dwindling funds to pay for its employees, rent and other services.

Soon after Mr Booker's announcement, Democrats and progressives praised the man for the campaign he ran, which frequently focused on issues of racial justice.

He "and his team ran a campaign that centred courage & clarity. He spoke up when this presidential primary needed a decisive voice & leadership in the struggle fo racial justice," wrote Mari Urbina, the national political director for the progressive group Indivisible. "I'm proud of him for running a campaign that challenged [Democratic] voters to imagine beyond Trump."

Stacey Abrams, who mounted a just-miss candidacy in 2018 for Georgia governor, praised Mr Booker for his "relentless optimism".

"My friend Sen. Cory Booker has been - and continues to be - a light that knows our nation is capable of so much more. Thank you for your relentless optimism, grounded not in naïveté but a deep understanding of what we can do when we tell the truth & unleash the capacity of all," she tweeted.

And, Mr Booker was praised by his former opposition in the 2020 field, including by senator Amy Klobuchar, who tweeted her support: "I will miss my friend Cory Booker so much on the campaign trail. We were friends before this started and are even better friends now. The one thing about Cory—he never stops standing up for what is right...so, the best is yet to come!"

Meanwhile, Mr Trump took the moment as an opportunity to gloat, and mocked Mr Booker.

"Really Big Breaking News (Kidding): Booker, who was in zero polling territory, just dropped out of the Democrat Presidential Primary Race," he tweeted. "Now I can rest easy tonight. I was sooo concerned that I would someday have to go head to head with him!"

The Iowa caucuses will be held on 3 February, marking the official start of the primary season. In Iowa as in many other states across the country, Mr Booker had struggled in the polls. In the latest aggregate of polls in the midwestern state, he came in with just 2.7 per cent support, a far cry from the leading candidate Mr Sanders, who has 21.3 per cent in those polls.