Cory Booker’s Iowa Steak Fry Speech Transcript
Newark, NJ — Cory Booker delivered a rousing speech at the Polk County Iowa Steak Fry this afternoon.
Read Cory’s Iowa Steak Fry speech transcript of his remarks as delivered below.
I cannot tell you what it means to be here in Polk County. I can't tell you what it means to be back here in Des Moines. Now some of you might not know this, but this big bald Black guy from Jersey, my roots are right here in Des Moines. My grandmother was born and raised in this state right here, in Des Moines.
And this is what I know: It was my family in crisis. My grandmother's grandmother, there was a poor woman whose husband was murdered in Alabama. And her and her nine children, around the turn of the century, moved up to this state. And they found a town called Buxton, Iowa. Now, like Iowa has been on LGBTQ rights, on women's rights to vote, on civil rights, this town was ahead of its time. This was a place where you saw black migrants like my great, great, great grandma. And white European immigrants come together in an integrated town. And they went down together in the mines, working side by side to scrape out from the earth their American dream.
That is the story of America. When my grandmother's child, my mother, was joining with my dad moving to the state of New Jersey, every time they try to find a neighborhood -- often with the best public schools -- 50 years ago, they would be met by a real estate agent that would see a black family and say, lies. This house sell is no longer available. Oh, This house was pulled off the market, it's already sold. But what they found in that moment of bigotry and discrimination, they found people from that community, white folks who said, this is not who we are, we are going to stand for you. And they set up a sting operation with some incredible lawyers, I call it a conspiracy of love, where they would send my parents had to look at a house, they would be told it was solved and the volunteer white couple would come right after them and put a bid on the home and find out the house was still for sale.
And the house I grew up in, my parents were told it was sold. The white couple find out it was still for sale, they put a bid on the house, the bid was accepted, papers were drawn up. And on the day of the closing, the white couple did not show up. My father did and a volunteer lawyer, a wise man named Marty Friedman. And they marched into that real estate agent's office. And the real estate agent didn't give up. He literally was so angry. He had been caught in this sting, in this conspiracy of love, that he gets up and punches my dad's lawyer in the face and sticks a dog on my dad. And as I was growing up in this amazing town, every time my dad would tell me this story, the dog would get bigger.
Eventually, he'd be like, boy, I had to find a pack of wolves to get you in this house. America, Iowa, this is who we are. We are not a nation of hate and discrimination. When I was growing up around this kitchen table, my parents didn't hesitate to tell me about wretchedness and discrimination and bigotry. But they always told me that that has never defined America.
What has defined this country is our ability to respond to hatred with love, for us to respond to people that try to divide us with our ability to come together and stand together and work together. I am proud to be in this election. It's about a many things. And the policy issues are so urgent. But this election is really a referendum of spirit. It's not a referendum on one guy in one office. This election is a referendum on who we are and who we must be to each other. This party, we as Democrats have always told the truth of who we are.
My grandmother, married my Louisiana grandfather, they moved to Detroit. My grandfather got a job on the assembly lines as a union worker for UAW. And at that time, most blacks in America were Republicans, but he went out and was an activist that bragged to the day he died about converting districts after districts to the Democratic Party, because my grandfather said, Democrats we're the party of we not the party of me. Democrats we're the party of inclusion, not the party of exclusion. We're not the party of the wealthy few, we're the party of everyone, everybody, everywhere. We're the party of civil rights, of womens rights, of workers rights, of LGBTQ rights.
Heck, we're the party that believes in science.
So I want you to know, I'm running because my parents taught me the ideals of rugged individualism and self reliance. But the truth of America is that we're not here because of rugged individualism and self reliance. We're here because of each other. We didn't get the moon because of rugged individualism. We didn't build the Underground Railroad because of rugged individualism. We didn't beat the Nazis because of individuals.
Every great gain in this nation was by patriots who brought people together, because patriotism is love of country. And you cannot love your country unless you love your fellow country men and women.
Love is not a sentiment. I'm not talking sentimentality. Love is struggle. Love is sacrifice. Love is service. Love says that if your family doesn't have health care, if your family doesn't have great public schools, then it's an affront to my family and weakens our justice. And so this election, we Democrats have to understand, we cannot define ourselves by what we're against or who were against. We must define ourselves by who we are and what we are for.
There are those who wanted to demean degrade and divide. But we in this horrible moment must be the party of a revival of civic grace, we must be the party of a more courageous empathy. We must be the party of service and sacrifice and love of your neighbor and your countrymen and women.
I am here all my life because of the sacrifices in service of our ancestors. Every election was not an election about me. We are about a team sport.
This election is not just about one office,
We got to beat Mitch McConnell.
This election, it's not just about one office. It's about Supreme Court seats. This election isn't about one office, it's about state legislators. It's about governors. And so I'm going to call to you right now. I need everyone's help with my campaign. Because we're not running an individual campaign. We will win this election, not by dividing Democrats but have people that unite us and bring us together. We will win this election, not by showing the worst of who we are, but the best of who we are. Because we have seen tough times before.
Donald Trump tries to demean and degrade and divide. But I remember the poetry of Maya Angelou. He may try to lie about us. But she said you may write me down in history with your bitter twisted lies. You may trod me in the very dirt, but still like dust, we will rise.
I'm telling you right now, they came after us. They came after us. They came after us. In Valley Forge. They came out to this country in Pearl Harbor. They came after us at 9/11. And we carry the grief and the hurt. But we were always a nation in our worst parts that we pulled together and said to each other, we will rise. They tried to beat us back at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. They tried to beat us down at Stonewall, but we responded in every generation with the words 'we will rise.'
And now we must rise, we will rise for health care for all. We will rise for public schools. We will rise to end the scourge of gun violence. We will rise for union labor. We will rise for one another. Like Kennedy, who pointed to the moon, we will rise. Like King, who pointed to the mountaintop, we will rise. Iowa, America, it's our time to come together, to stand together, to work together. He does not define us. We define our truth. And I'll tell you right now, we will rise. We will rise. We will rise. We will rise. Thank you very much. Thank you.
