As the second Trump administration accelerates what critics label a deliberate dismantling of federal protections, celebrity Senator Cory Booker is embarking on a national tour Monday to promote his forthcoming book, “Stand,” drawing immediate scorn from a primary opponent who called the venture a distracting vanity project amid a constitutional crisis.
The New Jersey Democrat’s tour will begin at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center here on March 22, featuring what his announcement calls “a timely and hopeful conversation on reclaiming America’s shared ideals.”
The book argues for a return to principles like justice and civic engagement as strategic tools for the nation’s survival.
The timing, however, struck anti-establishment progressive Lisa McCormick as profoundly misplaced. In an interview, she framed the tour as the epitome of a political class prioritizing personal branding over direct action against what she termed “neofascist tyranny.”
“While the foundations of democracy are being methodically torched, Senator Booker is scheduling readings,” McCormick said. “This is not leadership. It is literary performance art arranged for the very moment when every ounce of political courage is required to stop the madness.”
McCormick, who is challenging Booker for the Democratic Senate nomination in the June 2 primary election, pointed to a sweeping series of actions by the Trump administration since January 2025 that have reshaped the landscape of American life.
These include the largest cuts to Medicaid in history, the revocation of anti-discrimination orders for federal contractors, the effective ban of abortion care within the Veterans Affairs system, and a relentless campaign against diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives across government and private industry.
“The checklist of calamity is long and growing,” McCormick said. “Women have lost rights, voting protections are gutted, the climate crisis accelerates, and the president wages trade wars that benefit billionaires while throwing working families into chaos. And where is the senator? He is polishing his hopeful anecdotes for a tour through early primary states.”
A palpable unease has settled over the American workforce, a concern that the promised economic boom under President Donald Trump has curdled into hiring freezes and persistent inflation, leaving many to wonder about their prospects for a decent job.
This economic disquiet forms the backdrop for a more visceral fear, as the administration’s immigration enforcers patrol city streets in a manner some residents describe as Gestapo-like, with civilians caught in the crossfire.
Against this national tumult, the record of Senator Cory Booker is being presented not as a shield for his constituents, but as a ledger of failure and accommodation.
Despite a declaration last July that he was “ready to fight,” critics note Booker has stood by as part of what they term the ‘Capitulation Caucus,’ remaining silent as Democrats surrendered after a 40-day government shutdown and now accept hollow promises while Republicans maneuver for greater advantage.
Leading this charge is progressive challenger Lisa McCormick, who frames the upcoming Senate primary not as a contest between Democrats, but as a referendum on an establishment favorite funded by the very forces she says are undermining the public good.
Booker, a Wall Street darling, has raised nearly $100 million in campaign contributions, a sum drawn from at least four dozen billionaire donors, the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, and a constellation of other interests that McCormick argues have dictated his tenure.
The indictment is sweeping.
Since Booker entered the Senate, a cascading series of national declines has unfolded: women lost constitutional abortion rights, the Voting Rights Act was gutted, the frequency of mass shootings tripled, and atmospheric carbon dioxide climbed from 395 to 427 parts per million.
In New Jersey, the middle class contracted as an estimated $37 trillion in wealth was transferred from workers to the richest one percent.
Booker missed 413 roll call votes, or 9.7 percent of those held.
On the world stage, North Korea joined the nuclear club. On domestic streets, the administration has deployed military assets. The child poverty rate has more than doubled.
Through each crisis, McCormick’s campaign asserts, the senator’s immense fundraising—including $871,563 from the pro-Israel lobby—has rendered him a spectator or a collaborator in a losing fight, one in which “Trump won every issue fight.”
The question McCormick poses to Democratic voters is not merely about policy differences, but about complicity. In an era defined by loss, she argues the senator’s portfolio is one of passive attendance, his campaign treasury a monument to the very power dynamics that have left Americans anxious in their workplaces and fearful on their streets.
Booker’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on McCormick’s criticisms. The senator, in his book announcement, stated his record-breaking Senate floor speech last year was meant to “shine a light on the harmful policies of the Trump administration” and inspire action.
McCormick said it was an act of self-aggrandizing vanity that served no purpose except to fatten Booker’s campaign accounts and distract from Senator Chuck Schumer’s capitulation on a key Republican spending bill.
McCormick cited Booker’s record of missed Senate votes, his refusal to endorse progressive Zohran Mamdani in the New York City mayoral race, and, most pointedly, his fundraising.
“Fifty billionaires gave money to Cory Booker,” McCormick said. “Who do you think he really works for?”
Her campaign is built on policies that include Medicare for All and a federal wealth cap of $100 million, a proposal she calls a necessary corrective to the “theft” of $37 trillion from workers over recent decades.
The context for the political friction is a nation operating under sustained tension. The Trump administration’s style of governance, described by some foreign policy observers as “creating a crisis to solve a problem,” has yielded a series of disruptive trade deals and a hardline domestic agenda.
This has included mass firings of federal employees, the weaponization of agencies like the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and an immigration crackdown that has seen armed patrols in major cities.
“We used to brag that no nation was freer,” McCormick said. “Now we have a government that behaves like an occupying force. This is the American carnage we were warned about, and it demands a response more substantial than a book tour.”
Booker’s tour will proceed from Newark to Washington, Philadelphia, Atlanta and other cities, concluding in San Francisco in early April. Tickets for the Newark event are on sale now.
Meanwhile, the National Partnership for Women & Families released a report last month detailing 53 ways the Trump administration has harmed women and families in its first year, from threatening pregnant workers’ protections to eliminating the White House Gender Policy Council.
“The crisis is now,” McCormick said. “The standing we need isn’t on a stage. It’s at a filibuster podium, blocking every dangerous nominee. It’s in the streets, marching. It’s in refusing the money that compromises. That’s the stand that’s missing.”