Cory Booker, the charming Democratic Newark Mayor known for his heroic acts, was elected to the U.S. Senate on Wednesday.
Polls show that Booker defeated his political opponent, conservative Republican Steve Lonegan, a former small-town mayor, with a double-digit edge. Booker had an 11-point lead over Lonegan with more than 90 percent of the votes counted.
Booker, 44, spoke to cheering supporters in Newark where he thanked them for turning out to vote against the backdrop of the 16-day government shutdown.
"It would have been easy to listen to this frustrating negativity and stay home today. But here in New Jersey, more than a million people rejected cynicism and came out on a Wednesday, in the middle of October, three weeks before we have another election, to fight the cynicism," he said, according to Reuters. "You didn't just vote, you believed that your vote and choice mattered," he added.
Booker is the first black elected official to hold a senator seat from New Jersey. He also joins Republican Tim Scott of South Carolina as the nation's second black senator currently in office, reports USA Today.
During the campaign, Lonegan hammered Booker on Newark's economic troubles, tax increases, and violent crime. The GOP also has attacked Booker over a 2008 statement that a drug dealer he called a friend was actually an "archetype," as well as his Twitter exchanges with a stripper and his out-of-state fundraising trips.
At one point, Lonegan, the former state director of Americans for Prosperity, a group funded by the conservative Koch brothers, appeared to close in on Booker in recent weeks. However, Booker was able to rebound after a series of debate performances in which Lonegan applauded Republicans for inciting the ongoing government shutdown and argued against using federal aid to help Superstorm Sandy victims.
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