NJ-SEN: Booker getting primary challenge for Senate from Sanders supporter

Cory Booker will have at least one Democratic primary challenger next year for his Senate seat if his presidential campaign doesn’t take off — a Bernie Sanders supporter from his hometown.

Lawrence Hamm, a longtime Newark civil rights activist who chairs the People’s Organization for Progress, said Thursday he plans to run for U.S. Senate in the 2020 Democratic primary.

Hamm, who announced his plans on social media, said in a brief phone interview he will seek the nomination and wants to appear on the same ballot line as Sanders.

"I support Bernie Sanders for president because I believe in the agenda and the platform that he’s running on," said Hamm, who is the New Jersey chairman for Sanders’ campaign. "And if Bernie Sanders becomes president, he’s going to need a senator from New Jersey who will fight wholeheartedly for those reforms and agenda items and platforms that he campaigned for as president."

It remains to be seen if the Democratic presidential race will still be competitive when New Jersey holds its primary on June 2. New Jersey’s primary is one of the last in the country and just a month and a half before the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee.



https://www.politico.com/states/new-jersey/story/2019/12/19/booker-getting-primary-challenge-for-senate-from-sanders-supporter-1233676