Newark Mayor Cory Booker will not challenge New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in next year’s gubernatorial race.
Instead, Booker will run for the U.S. Senate in 2014, seeking the seat of fellow Democrat and incumbent Senator Frank Lautenberg. The 88-year-old senior senator has not publicly said whether he’ll run for another term and dismissed Booker’s announcement as a “political distraction.”
Booker’s decision comes as Republican Gov. Chris Christie enjoys record high approval ratings in the wake of his response to Hurricane Sandy, which ravaged the New Jersey coastline.
The two-term Newark mayor was considered by many Democrats as the party’s best hope of stripping Christie of his post.
Though Booker won’t face Christie head on, he pledged to get “fully involved” in the Garden State’s 2013 elections. “No one is going to fight harder than me for the entire Democratic ticket from top to bottom,” he said in a video statement released Thursday (below).









