New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker will not be on the ballot in Vermont’s Democratic primary next year, his campaign tells The Post.
Candidates had until Monday evening to submit paperwork required to get on the ballot, but Booker’s campaign said the senator decided to sit out a run in Sen. Bernie Sanders’ home state.
Julie McClain Downey, director of state communications for the Booker campaign, said the decision was based on the state requiring that a candidate must win at least 15 percent of the vote in order to earn any delegates.
The campaign will use its resources “in the most efficient and effective way possible,” McClain Downey said.
“In this case, given Vermont’s 15% threshold requirement to receive delegates, we have decided to direct our efforts elsewhere to best achieve our goals and objectives,” the state communications director added.
Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and former Maryland Rep. John Delaney will also not be on the state’s ballot when voters head to the polls March 3.
Delaney’s campaign communications director Kandie Stroud told The Post, “We believe that Bloomberg’s entrance into the race makes a contested convention even more likely than it already was, so we are picking and choosing which states we’re competing in with that in mind.”
Bennet’s campaign spokesperson Samantha Greene said to The Post, “We made a strategic choice to focus on the states that will actually help us secure the nomination and preserve our resources for the long haul. Michael is already on the ballot in 18 states, with two more awaiting confirmation, and we are full steam ahead in dozens more.”
Neither appeared on a list of qualified candidates released by Vermont’s secretary of state Tuesday.
Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro was also not included, however, his campaign told The Post they were given an extension on Monday’s deadline.
“We submitted the necessary paperwork and signatures but some were deemed illegible so by law we were granted an extension to replace them. We will replace them and be on the ballot in Vermont,” Castro’s communications director Sawyer Hackett said in a statement to The Post.
