Emerging Democrat notables, U.S. Senators Kamalah Harris (D-CA) and Cory Booker (D-NJ), now sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Providing oversight of the Department of Justice and agencies underneath it, Harris and Booker, both attorneys, are two of only three African Americans to serve on the committee 200-plus year history.
Harris
After working for 25-years in law enforcement as a prosecutor, she served in powerful positions: deputy district attorney for Alameda County, Calif.; then the first woman to serve as San Francisco’s District Attorney; and finally as California attorney general.
Harris won her Senate seat in 2016.
Booker
Booker took another approach to his senate seat. An attorney for the Urban Justice Center in New York then working as a coordinator at Newark, Nj. Youth Project, he won a city council seat in Newark. After two campaigns for mayor, he was elected.
During his second term as Newark’s mayor, he ran for Senate in 2014 and won.
Dynamic Duo
Attorneys who in many ways, practiced on different sides of justice, they come together on key issues such as supporting immigration, defending environmental laws, and holding Trump and his Administration accountable.
In December, Booker and Harris championed Doug Jones who eked out a win in a special U.S. Senate election beating controversial candidate, Roy Moore. After, police had to provide him and his Newark home more security detail due to death threats.
In a Twitter post, Booker said, “It’ll be my mission to check awful actions by Trump & Sessions; keep working to advance the cause of reforming our broken justice system; and to bend the arc of history closer toward equal justice for all.”
Booker and Harris are part of a growing new face of the Democratic party that represents diversity and boldly challenging the Trump Administration.
