Senator Cory Booker, who five years ago was in the midst of his own campaign for the presidency, will serve as a co-chair of this year’s Democratic National Convention (DNC), where Vice President Kamala Harris will be put forward as the party’s nominee for president.
Booker was one of four co-chairs announced by the DNC yesterday, along with Minnesota Lieutenant Gov. Peggy Flanagan, former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, and Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas).
“I’m proud and honored to gavel in the Democratic National Convention with our four incredible Co-Chairs,” DNC chair Jaime Harrison said in a statement yesterday. “Their dedication to service, boundless optimism, and passion for progress is emblematic of our party’s values and our message to the American people.”
Booker will gavel in the convention on Wednesday night, when vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, former President Bill Clinton, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are set to speak. The theme of that night, per the DNC, will be “A Fight for Our Freedoms.”
The New Jersey senator is, at this point, an old hand at national conventions. The two-term senator and former Newark mayor gave a rousing 20-minute address during the 2016 DNC in support of Hillary Clinton, and in 2020 was one of a number of unsuccessful presidential primary candidates to give a virtual speech supporting Joe Biden.
This year, he’ll get to appear before the convention in support of someone whom he considers a personal friend. Booker and Harris served in the Senate together for four years, both sitting on the Judiciary Committee; they were also the only two Black Democratic senators during Harris’s entire time in the Senate.
“For the last decade, I’ve had the privilege of calling Kamala Harris a friend, a Senate colleague, my Vice President – my sister,” Booker said in an endorsement of Harris the day after Joe Biden dropped out. “I cannot wait to do everything I can to help her make history, and call her Madam President.”