Hollywood Opens Wallet For Cory Booker

Eva Longoria and Newark Mayor Cory Booker
Credit: Twitter – @mattdonnally

Newark Mayor Cory Booker has been the frontrunner for the Aug. 13 primary election for New Jersey’s vacant Senate seat. He’s also raked in around $8 million for his  bid – and much of that was raised by Hollywood celebrities and industry bigwigs.

In March, Hollywood Democratic fundraising heavy-weights, Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg, joined notable Hollywood Republicans Bruce Willis and Jerry Weintraub at Weintraub’s Beverly Hills mansion to fundraise for the popular Newark Mayor.

In early April, House of Cards star, Kate Mara, tweeted a picture of her and Booker at a Booker fundraiser.

As the election edged closer, more Hollywood stars came out for Booker.

Oprah Winfrey held a fundraiser Aug. 1 for Booker in Jersey City. Tickets for the event went from $1,000-$2,600 a person and it’s estimated 200 people attended. Winfrey has stayed relatively quiet since endorsing and campaigning for President Barack Obama in 2008. Recently, Winfrey spoke at the Harvard Commencement ceremony and spoke about tougher gun control and advocated for immigration reform. But it seems she’s always been a fan and supporter of Booker’s, writing in Time Magazine in 2011, “Cory Booker is a genius.”

“He’s Newark’s biggest cheerleader now, but I’m looking forward to the day we all get to cheer him on wherever politically he chooses to go,” Winfrey wrote of Booker when he was selected to be one of “Time” magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world.

Ivanka Trump recently held a fundraiser at her home (on Park Avenue) for Booker. Tickets to the fundraiser were reportedly going for $5,200 a piece. Trump endorsed Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election, but Politico reports that Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, have bundled $41,000 for Booker’s Senate run.

Actress and Democratic advocate, Eva Longoria, hit the campaign trail for Booker in recent days. Longoria joined Booker on his bus tour on Aug. 12.

Booker is running for the seat previously held by Democrat Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who died in June at the age of 89. Gov. Chris Christie appointed Republican Jeff Chiesa to occupy the Senate seat after Lautenberg’s death. Chiesa decided not seek election in the special election.