U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-New Jersey) said the second election return he will be following on November 8, after Hillary Clinton’s campaign for U.S. president, is Jason Kander’s race for U.S. Senate in Missouri – and a heavy turnout of black voters is the only path to victory for Clinton and Kander in this state.
“It all depends on our turnout,” Booker – one of only two African Americans in the U.S. Senate and the only senator in the Congressional Black Caucus – told a group of North County elected officials gathered in Ferguson on Monday, October 10. “It all depends on what we do.”
Kander gathered the group of elected officials when Booker told him he wanted to go to Ferguson while he was in St. Louis to speak with him at Harris-Stowe State University. The group included St. Louis County Councilwoman Hazel Erby, Democratic nominee for St. Louis County Council Rochelle Walton Gray, term-limited state Representatives Sharon Pace and Tommie Pierson Sr., Democratic nominees for state representative Cora Faith Walker and Bruce Franks Jr., Dellwood Mayor Reggie Jones, Cool Valley Mayor Viola Murphy, Ferguson Councilwomen Ella Jones and Laverne Mitchom, and Spanish Lake Township Committeewoman Gwen Reed.
“I beseech you,” Booker told them, during a 30-minute private conversation. “Help me get this guy elected.”
Booker said he is campaigning for Democratic candidates for Senate, like Kander, who have a chance of taking a seat from a Republican incumbent on November 8. Kander, 35, a Democrat from Kansas City currently serving as Missouri secretary of state, is running against Roy Blunt, 66, a Republican from Springfield who continues to endorse Donald Trump for U.S. president. The day after Booker’s visit, Roll Call, which covers Capitol Hill, ranked Kander as the No. 1 Senate challenger in 2016.
Booker explained the tactical advantages for having a party majority in the Senate. The current Republican majority in the Senate has enabled them to block President Obama’s power to make an appointment to the empty seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. Also, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) has refused to move bills proposed by Booker and others that offer reforms on major urban issues like gun control and criminal justice.
“I can’t get anything done,” Booker said. “McConnell refuses to even put my bipartisan bills on the floor.”
Now there are 54 Republicans and 44 Democrats in the Senate, and the Roll Call ranking of challengers on October 11 listed 11 credible Democratic challengers to Republican incumbents and two credible Republican challengers to Democrats. While working towards a Democratic Senate majority is critical, Booker said Kander, in particular, would be a valuable ally to him.
“I need people like Jason who understand urban issues, who know our community’s needs and will advocate for our community,” Booker said.
When he asked for questions, Booker was besieged by local concerns.
Pierson – who lost his August 2 Democratic primary for lieutenant governor to Russ Carnahan by more than 200,000 votes – asked why black politicians are always being asked to rally around white Democrats for statewide office. “Why are we never rallying around a statewide black candidate?” Pierson asked.
Booker promised he would return to North County, before it was time for U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill to defend her seat in 2018, and help strategize in support of “young black leaders coming up.”
Pace, Murphy and others complained that local officials were not adequately including black elected officials in planning meetings for how to benefit from the federal Promise Zone designation announced for north St. Louis city and county. The designation was designed to give applicants from targeted areas an advantage when applying for federal grants.
Kander directed someone from his staff to get involved in finding an immediate solution, though he is a state, not federal, official. If elected to the Senate, he said he would bolster constituent services to offer more technical support for things like grant writing.
Erby said that everyone who attended the meeting was “on board” with Kander and could be expected to volunteer, but they would need to pay people to help get out the vote. She described paying people who worked street teams on the August 2 primary $100 a day and being told, “Thank you, I am going to go buy groceries.”
“If you want us to get people to go door to door,” Erby said, “people are looking to be paid.”
Kander seemed to be on the verge of delegating a staff person on this matter, when Booker interrupted. A spokesperson later told The American that the Democratic coordinated campaign in Missouri is spending resources in North County.
Kander faces Blunt on the November 8 ballot.
