Booker describes ‘nervous’ attempt to ask Rosario Dawson for her number

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said he “had to get up the courage” to ask girlfriend Rosario Dawson for her number after the actress didn’t give him “the time of day” initially.

Booker, addressing a CNN town hall Wednesday night, also said Dawson has “taught me so much in a very short period of time.”

The two met at a political fundraiser for 2018 Maryland gubernatorial candidate Ben Jealous, “but she didn’t give me the time of day,” Booker said at the CNN forum held in Orangeburg, S.C.

Dawson supported Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the 2016 primaries. Booker did not run for president then. 

{mosads}When he and Dawson met again, “I’m a United States senator and I had to get up the courage to ask her for her phone number,” Booker said.

Cory Booker talks about the first time he met his “incredible girlfriend,” actress Rosario Dawson: “She didn’t give me the time of day” #BookerTownHall https://t.co/Uyh4VIiPAN pic.twitter.com/lddUIqMmtO

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) March 27, 2019

Booker, if elected, would be the first unmarried president since James Buchanan was elected in 1856. Grover Cleveland was also unmarried when he was elected in 1884 but married his wife Frances in 1886.

Booker has frequently discussed his relationship with Dawson during media appearances, telling Ellen DeGeneres last week that “she really has this nurturing spirit that’s made me more courageous, not just in the love that I project and want to see in our country, but I think even in our personal relationships to love more fearlessly.”