He visited back in October and stole hearts, so we scoured the Web for some facts about Newark, N.J. mayor Cory Booker.
1. His maternal great-grandfather was white: As determined in an episode of the PBS series Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Booker discovered that his great-grandfather was white.
2. Leadership runs in his family: Booker’s parents, Cary and Carolyn, were among the first black executives at IBM. Booker himself was elected senior class president during his time at Stanford University.
3. He was a movie star before becoming mayor: Booker was the subject of a 2005 documentary about the 2002 mayoral race he lost against then-incumbent Sharpe James.
4. Booker is still on TV: He stars in Brick City, a Sundance Channel series focusing on Booker’s mayoral work in Newark.
5. He has more Twitter followers than constituents: According to the 2010 Census, Newark has a population of 277,140 people. Booker himself has more than 1.3 million Twitter followers, nearly five times as many constituents.