Vegan Senator Cory Booker Sets Record for Most Votes in New Jersey History 

This week, vegan United States Senator Cory Booker broke the record for the most votes received ever by a senatorial candidate in New Jersey. As of now, Booker has received more than 2.2 million votes statewide for his bid at a third term beating a record held by Democrat Bob Menendez, who received 1,987,680 votes in 2012. Booker is ahead of his challenger Republican Rik Mehta for the New Jersey Senate seat by approximately 16 points with 500,000 ballots still being counted statewide. 

A former Democratic Presidential candidate, Booker has been vegan since 2014 and uses his political career to advance animal-rights, environmental policies, and racial justice initiatives. Last year, Booker introduced The Farm System Reform Act (FSRA)—legislation that aims to transition animal agriculture away from factory farming by banning the opening of new large-scale concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and limiting the growth of existing CAFOs in the meat and dairy sector. This May, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and House Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA) announced they would co-sponsor FSRA—which aims to phase out the largest CAFOs by 2040—to help push it through Congress.