Last Call For Another Hat Leaves The Ring, Con't

Sen. Cory Booker is out of the 2020 presidential contest and that's not a good thing.

Sen. Cory Booker announced Monday that he will end his campaign after failing to qualify for the Democratic debate planned for Tuesday in Iowa. 

"It was a difficult decision to make, but I got in this race to win, and I've always said I wouldn't continue if there was no longer a path to victory," Booker said in an email to supporters Monday. 

The New Jersey Democrat's announcement came a day before six presidential candidates will participate in the CNN/Des Moines Register's debate in Des Moines, Iowa. He did not qualify for the event. It also came as the Senate gears up for the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump. 

"Our campaign has reached the point where we need more money to scale up and continue building a campaign that can win -- money we don't have, and money that is harder to raise because I won't be on the next debate stage and because the urgent business of impeachment will rightly be keeping me in Washington," Booker wrote. 

His announcement marks another departure of a high-profile black candidate from the 2020 race. After not making the December debate, Booker criticized the rules that kept him from qualifying for the event and was outspoken about the growing lack of diversity on stage.

It's that last part that's a genuine problem for Democrats. A party that is almost majority non-white having long-shots Andrew Yang and Deval Patrick as the only non-white presidential hopefuls heading into Iowa in three weeks is not the situation I'd hoped the Dems would be in.

Booker will continue to fight for criminal justice reform along with Kamala Harris and I wish him well, but it was clear that this remains a problem.  Biden is still the safe and comfortable choice increasingly for black voters like myself who are afraid that we will greatly suffer if Trump wins a second term, and nobody seems to want to address this situation directly to show us that they're any better.

I don't ever want to vote out of fear, but hope.  I understand those who do, however.  Especially in 2020.

It's a matter of survival.