DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker is taking his call for social justice to Iowa, where he plans to visit with black leaders this weekend on his first trip to the early 2020 caucus state as a Democratic presidential candidate. Booker is using rhetoric reminiscent of the civil rights movement to distinguish himself early in the race. And although Iowa is a vastly white state, the sentiment echoes within the state’s Democratic base.
“I think more and more people are seeing that social justice doesn’t just apply to race,” said Nancy Bobo, a white Des Moines Democrat who likes Booker. “When I think of social justice, I think of all the different laws and structures that impede opportunities for people for a whole range of reasons.”
Race is shaping up to be central to the 2020 Democratic presidential campaign. Democratic prospects have called President Donald Trump’s portrayal of immigrants racist and roundly condemned his reaction to the deadly 2017 demonstration in Virginia as being sympathetic toward white supremacists.
Booker would conspicuously be the first presidential candidate this year to visit Black Hawk County, where the black population — at 9 percent — is three times that of vastly white Iowa. He plans to meet Friday (today) with black leaders in Waterloo, Iowa’s most African-American city per capita.
Before visiting Waterloo, Booker plans to campaign today (Friday) at a church in Mason City that has been active in officiating same-sex marriages in a state where they were legal before the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision granted the right nationally. Booker could appeal to that segment of Iowa voters who sent Democrat Tom Harkin, an outspoken advocate for worker and civil rights, to the Senate for 30 years until his retirement in 2014.
Booker is also scheduled to hold events in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City today (Friday) and to campaign in Marshalltown and Des Moines on Saturday.
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