Speed Reads

2020 Democratic debates

Cory Booker's new campaign slogan is 'dagnabbit'

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) has somehow become the oldest person in the 2020 race.

Okay, so Booker didn't literally age a few dozen years, but his use of the folksy term "dagnabbit" did turn some heads during Thursday night's debates. So in what could be an attempt to preserve his internet-savvy reputation, Booker quickly turned his favorite exclamation into a campaign slogan.

Booker first brought up the term in a question about school segregation, in which he talked about raising teacher salaries as mayor of Newark, New Jersey. "And we didn't stop there. Yeah, we closed poor-performing charter schools, but, dagnabbit, we expanded high-performing charter schools," he continued. It also got a shortened second appearance before Booker bemoaned the documentary Street Fighter's Oscar loss to "March of the dagnab Penguins." And apparently, this odd word choice has persisted for years.