Booker Makes It Official With A Fiery Speech From Newark

I must admit that I didn't realize that Senator Cory Booker had not officially declared his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination. After all, he has been campaigning hard for several weeks now.

But it is now official. In a very good speech from his hometown of Newark (New Jersey), he officially declared his candidacy on Saturday. Here's what he had to say:

First of all: Thank you -- for your support as we seek justice, not just for some, but for all.

Today we are impatient for that justice.

And our sense of urgency, our impatience, comes from the most demanding of values -- it comes from love. Love of our families. Love of our communities. Love of country. Love for each other.

And to many people across the country who don’t speak English, I want to say:

Yo voy a ser un presidente para toda nuestra gente.

56 years ago, a young preacher was arrested on Good Friday while demonstrating against segregation, and on this very day, Saturday, April 13, 1963, he was waking up in a jail cell in Birmingham.

The same jail cell where he wrote on the margins of a newspaper that had been smuggled in to him these words:

“For years now I have heard the word “Wait!”

This “Wait” has almost always meant “Never.”

We must come to see...that ‘justice too long delayed is justice denied.’”

He spoke to the possibility of what we can achieve when we realize our own power and refuse to wait. That young preacher was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Generations of Americans have shown us what was possible when they refused to wait.

Now it’s our turn.

America, we know our history -- it is a perpetual testimony to impatient, demanding, unrelenting people who in every generation brought a bolder, more real, more American justice. But we still have work to do.

America -- we can’t wait.

America -- we will not wait.

Join me, and together, we will fulfill our pledge to be a nation of opportunity for all. A nation of liberty and justice for all.

I am so thankful for your support -- your dedication has kept this grassroots team motivated and inspired.

We can’t wait when powerful forces are turning prejudice into policy and rolling back the rights that generations of Americans fought for and heroes died for.

We can’t wait when this administration is throwing children fleeing violence into cages, banning Muslims from entering the nation founded on religious liberty, and preventing brave transgender Americans from serving the country they love.

We can’t wait because we have a criminal justice system so deeply baked with bias that it ruthlessly discriminates against Black people, Brown people, low-income people, and people with mental illness and addiction.

We can’t wait when we have an economy where people who work two or three jobs -- even pick up extra shifts -- still can’t pay their bills.

We won’t wait for criminal justice reform. We will end the system of mass incarceration in America.

We won’t wait to legalize marijuana at the federal level. We will pass universal background checks, ban assault weapons, and close the loopholes that allow people who should never have a gun to get one. We will bring a fight to the NRA like they’ve never seen before. And we will win.

We won’t wait to meet the crisis of climate change. We won’t wait for real, inclusive economic justice.

We will protect workers’ rights to organize and empower unions.

We will build an opportunity economy where there are good-paying jobs and fair wages in every neighborhood and where the dignity of work is respected. We won’t wait to deliver a great education to every child. We won’t wait to fix our broken health care system.

We won’t wait to fix our broken immigration system, because immigration is a source of strength.

We won’t wait to stop the dangerous assault on women’s rights. We will demand reproductive justice, because women must have the freedom to make decisions about their own bodies and economic futures. And as President, I will appoint Supreme Court justices who will defend Roe v. Wade.

We won’t wait any longer for equal justice under the law. Because “Justice for all” has to mean justice for everyone.

Together, we will run at the tough challenges.

Together, we will again do the things that people tell us are impossible.

Together, we will win.

And together, we will rise.

Let’s start today.