Brussels Forum Session: Fortifying the Future of Ukraine: Rebuilding Infrastructure for Resilience
Cory Booker has dedicated his life to fighting for those who have been left out, left behind, or left without a voice. Booker grew up in northern New Jersey and received his undergraduate degree from Stanford University and his law degree from Yale Law School in 1997. Booker then moved to Newark and started a nonprofit organization to provide legal services for low-income families, helping tenants take on slumlords.
At 29, Booker was elected to the Newark City Council. From 2006 to 2013, Booker served as Newark’s mayor. During his tenure, the city entered its greatest period of economic growth since the 1960s. Overall crime declined and residents’ quality of life improved due to initiatives such as more affordable housing, new green spaces, increased educational opportunities, and more efficient city services. In 2013, Booker won a special election to represent New Jersey in the United States Senate. In 2014, Senator Booker was re-elected to a full six-year term.
As New Jersey’s junior Senator, Booker has emerged as a national leader in the effort to fix our broken criminal justice system and end mass incarceration, helping craft the most sweeping set of criminal justice reforms in a generation, the First Step Act, which became law in December 2018. He has also worked to reform America’s broken food system, address our nation’s nutrition crisis, and end food insecurity. Booker sits on the Judiciary Committee, the Foreign Relations Committee, the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, and the Small Business Committee.