Booker says Democrats 'desperately need new leadership'

Senator Cory Booker said the Democratic Party “desperately needs new leadership,” sharpening a public argument over the party’s direction less than six months before the November midterms.

The New Jersey Democrat told CNN on 24 May that the party apparatus had lost the trust of voters it needs to win back. He pointed to the Democratic National Committee’s botched release of its 2024 election autopsy as proof. The criticism landed the same week DNC Chair Ken Martin faced coordinated calls to resign from members of Congress, party strategists and grassroots organisations.

“You cannot lead the people if they don’t trust you, and that’s what’s lacking right now with the party apparatus,” Booker said. “But the people running out there that I’m running around this country trying to support, they’re building real trust with the American people.”
— Cory Booker, on CNN

Booker named three Senate candidates he said represented the party’s future: Jon Ossoff in Georgia, James Talarico in Texas and Roy Cooper in North Carolina. All three are running in competitive races that will decide control of the upper chamber, which Republicans hold by a single seat.

“We need to focus on the people, and the Democratic Party desperately needs new leadership, and that’s what’s exciting me about this cycle,” Booker said. “It’s not only new leaders emerging, but a new vision for our party.”
— Cory Booker

Booker declined to endorse Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer’s continued leadership. Schumer, 75, has led the caucus since 2017 and faces no declared challenger for the post. In the Senate, where public loyalty to one’s own leader is routine, Booker’s silence was read as a statement. His office offered no comment on whether he would back a formal change.

The unrest traces to the DNC’s 192-page autopsy report, released this month and intended to explain the party’s 2024 losses. Instead it was condemned as incomplete and defensive — critics said it sidestepped hard questions about the party’s standing with working-class voters. A survey by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee found that 95 per cent of its members wanted Martin to resign after the release. Martin has not said he will step aside.

“You are not going to win this election just by what you’re against,” Booker said. “You need to start articulating who you’re for and what you’re for. Have a vision that’s compelling that not only engenders trust but makes sense for the American people.”
— Cory Booker

Former Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Steve Israel argued in a column published this week that the autopsy debate was drowning out Democratic attacks on Trump administration vulnerabilities — chiefly petrol prices and consumer sentiment — when polls suggest the electorate is open to a different message. Booker’s comments break from the party’s post-2024 pattern of private frustration that seldom turns into open challenge.

By naming specific candidates alongside his critique, Booker treats the midterms as a referendum on his own party’s leadership, not merely a contest against Republicans. It remains unclear whether any of his Democratic colleagues will follow.