Booker: ‘I will have a woman running mate’

Presidential hopeful Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) vowed to have a female running mate should he win the Democratic Party’s nomination.

“I will have a woman running mate. To me it’s really clear that we do that,” he said Tuesday at the “She the People” presidential forum in Houston.

{mosads}The event, which organizers are calling “the first-ever Presidential candidate forum focused on women of color,” drew eight presidential candidates in recognition of the Democratic Party’s diversifying base.

Booker, speaking at a campaign stop in New Hampshire last month, expressed confidence that a woman would be on the Democratic presidential ticket, whether it was his or that of another candidate.

“No matter what, I’m looking you in the eye and saying this: There will be a woman on the ticket. I don’t know if it’s in the vice president’s position or in the president’s position,” Booker said.

Booker also said in February that he would prioritize finding a female running mate, but declined to make a firm pledge to have a female vice president on his own ticket, saying instead he would be “looking to women first.”

Appealing to female voters has become a top priority for presidential candidates after women fueled a blue wave that flipped 40 seats in the House last year and ushered in a record number of female representatives in Congress. 

Booker’s comments Wednesday came in response to a question about why women of color should support him against several other women in the race.

“Women of color can trust me as someone from my entire career has been rooted in the communities that have empowered me to be who I am today,” he said. “And so my fights have shown who I am and shown my loyalty and when I am president, these are going to continue to be the kind of fights that I take on and I will make sure this nation is finally who we say we are, a nation of liberty and justice for all.”