Cory Booker stressed the importance of bipartisanship in his announcement video and urged a polarized nation to unite around a “common sense of purpose,” adding that, “we are better when we help each other.”

Accomplishments: After earning a Rhodes scholarship and graduating from Yale Law School, Booker began his career as a community activist. In 2006, he was elected mayor of Newark – New Jersey’s largest city. He won a special Senate election in 2013 to fill a vacant seat, becoming New Jersey’s first black senator. The following year he won a full six-year Senate term.

Foreign policy: He voted in favor of President Donald Trump’s decision to pull U.S. troops out of Syria and Afghanistan, and against allowing state and municipal governments to punish companies that boycott, divest from or place sanctions on Israel to protest that country’s treatment of Palestinians.

What sets him apart: Booker announced his run on the first day of Black History Month, underscoring his potential to be America’s second black president, and raising inevitable comparisons with Barack Obama, the country’s first black president. He is a vegan, fluent in Spanish and the only unmarried candidate in the Democratic race so far.

Platform: He favors universal health care or “Medicare-for-All,” raising the minimum wage, creating good jobs and reforming the criminal justice system.