U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) has dropped out of the 2020 presidential race.

In a Monday Twitter post, Booker said it is with a full heart that he is suspending his campaign. 

"It’s with a full heart that I share this news—I’m suspending my campaign for president," the New Jersey senator wrote. "To my team, supporters, and everyone who gave me a shot—thank you. I am so proud of what we built, and I feel nothing but faith in what we can accomplish together."

The post accompanied a highlight reel of Booker's campaign. NBC News reports he lagged significantly behind other candidates in the polls with just 2% of national voter support. 

The announcement comes less than two weeks after another presidential contender of color, Julián Castro also ended his campaign. Andrew Yang and Deval Patrick are the two remaining candidates of color left in the 2020 Democratic presidential field. 

One of the earlier instances of Booker's campaign troubles came in September of last year when he announced he'd need to raise over $1 million within 10 days in order to remain in the presidential race, which he successfully did as The Daily Beast reported. 

Booker's primary campaign focuses involved matters of criminal justice reform, the racial wealth gap and LGBTQ issues. Like Castro, the senator also expressed indignation on behalf of Senator Kamala Harris when she suspended her campaign in early December.

During Booker's visit to the Blavity office for a taping of The Sit Down, he elaborated on the aforementioned focal points and the quest to defeat Trump being the minimum. 

“Just getting rid of Trump doesn’t bring justice to our community,” he told Blavity Politics Senior Editor Kandist Mallett. 

He also spoke on the origins of the racial wealth gap. 

"The wealth gap was created because of explicitly racist policies in our country. Redlining, mortgage discrimination … the criminal justice system, which is not only a criminal injustice, it is an economic injustice. You have kids in prison right now for doing things two out of the last three presidents admitted to doing. When they come out, they have a lifetime sentence," Booker said. "They can’t get jobs, can’t get loans from the bank. We have to start crafting policies that are racially conscious [and] try to deal with this injustice.”


"I’ve seen the bile, the anger, from my family members, to people in the Congressional Black Caucus, to leaders of color across this country who just don’t understand how we’ve gotten to a point now where there’s more billionaires in the 2020 race than there are Black people,” he said on Buzzfeed's AM To DM.

2020 electionCory Booker