President Obama's popularity among the black electorate won't change because of his revised stance on gay marriage, Newark mayor Cory Booker told BuzzFeed today.
"No. I think that because – and obviously that’s a huge broad generalization and some people think there will be, but to the extent of diffusing a statistically significant amount of voters, I just don’t think it’s going to matter," Booker said in an interview in his City Hall office.
"I just haven’t seen any evidence of that in Newark," Booker said. "That’s the population I know. I can’t even speak for black people in Newark, but I just don’t feel that it is."
As for whether Obama's announcement was made for political reasons, Booker echoed what he told Rachel Maddow last week: "It seems like he was saying he would have preferred to do it on his own pacing."
Booker, an official Obama campaign surrogate, said "I definitely intend to continue to talk about the issue as I was doing before as well as after."
Booker is seen as a potential future contender for higher office himself, and has supported gay marriage for some time. He has said that he won't officiate marriages at City Hall until everyone has the right to marry. The issue is one of the biggest areas of disagreement between Booker and his unlikely ally, Governor Chris Christie.