New Jersey Senator Cory Booker has gained national attention throughout his career in public office, but has struggled to jump out in early 2020 polling amid a crowded field of presidential hopefuls.
As Booker prepared to speak at the annual Polk County Democrats' Steak Fry in Iowa on Saturday (despite his vegan diet), his campaign released a memo to reporters and supporters which said the candidate would decide in the next 10 days whether he still has a shot at winning the nomination.
The memo read, in part, "This isn't an end-of-quarter stunt or another one of those memos from a campaign trying to spin the press. This is a real, unvarnished look under the hood of our operation at a level of transparency unprecedented in modern presidential campaigns."
Then just days after the memo was released, the campaign announced it had raised $1 million, putting it over 50 percent of the way to its goal of raising $1.7 million by September 30.
Sabrina Singh, national press secretary for Cory Booker 2020, told Cheddar on Tuesday she is "cautiously optimistic" the campaign will meet its goal by the date. If not, Booker could be the latest presidential hopeful to drop out of the race.
But Singh added that she thinks "we're going to get there."
"We know that in order for us to have a path to victory come January and February, [we need] to make sure that we can expand our operation," Singh said. "And the only way we can do that is by hiring more organizers, putting them on the ground, so people are getting texts and calls and getting their doors knocked."
Other 2020 Democrats have also begun focusing their efforts on early states like Iowa and New Hampshire.
A reporter says he overheard Sen. Kamala Harris joking to a colleague in Washington that she is "moving to f----- Iowa," as her campaign ramps up to weekly visits in early caucus and primary states and doubles the size of her 65-person ground operation, POLITICO reports.
Booker's national press secretary said the purpose of the memo was to "be as transparent as possible with the people, with the voters."
On Tuesday, Monmouth University Polling Institute released its newest poll out of New Hampshire that has Booker polling at 2 percent among registered and likely Democratic voters. Harris is polling just a point higher at 3 percent.
"We are not just in it to stick this out, we're in it to win it. So, that's why we need the $1.7 million," Singh said, explaining that donations would help boost staffing efforts in early states to mobilize those polling numbers.
And while Democrats on the campaign trail are trying to unseat President Trump in the upcoming election, House Democrats, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have opened an impeachment inquiry against Trump.
Booker's team also recognizes that work continues for the senator on Capitol Hill, especially as the formal investigation into Trump's conduct gets underway.
"The President should be held accountable now. Cory, from day one, from back in May, has been calling for the impeachment proceedings to begin," Singh told Cheddar.
