Brakkton Booker
Brakkton Booker is a National Desk reporter based in Washington, DC.
He covers a wide range of topics including issues related to federal social safety net programs and news around the mid-Atlantic region of the United States.
His reporting takes him across the country covering natural disasters, like hurricanes and flooding, as well as tracking trends in regional politics and in state governments, particularly on issues of race.
Following the 2018 mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, Booker's reporting broadened to include a focus on young activists pushing for changes to federal and state gun laws, including the March For Our Lives rally and national school walkouts.
Prior to joining NPR's national desk, Booker spent five years as a producer/reporter for NPR's political unit. He spent most to the 2016 presidential campaign cycle covering the contest for the GOP nomination and was the lead producer from the Trump campaign headquarters on election night. Booker served in a similar capacity from the Louisville campaign headquarters of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in 2014. During the 2012 presidential campaign, he produced pieces and filed dispatches from the Republican and Democratic National conventions, as well as from President Obama's reelection site in Chicago.
In the summer of 2014, Booker took a break from politics to report on the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri.
Booker started his career as a show producer working on nearly all of NPR's magazine programs, including Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and former news and talk show Tell Me More, where he produced the program's signature Barbershop segment.
He earned a bachelor's degree from Howard University and was a 2015 Kiplinger Fellow. When he's not on the road, Booker enjoys discovering new brands of whiskey and working on his golf game.
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Leaders want to send a "resounding message that love triumphs over hate." An increased police presence at Jewish institutions will continue, as it has since the Pittsburgh shooting. -
"President Trump, you are not welcome in Pittsburgh until you fully denounce white nationalism," a letter from some Jewish leaders said. The synagogue's Rabbi Jeffrey Myers escorted the president. -
Protesters in Washington, D.C., and around the country came out ahead of Friday's procedural Senate vote on whether to move forward with Judge Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court.
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The legal community reacts to the Senate's planned confirmation vote on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, including more than 1,700 law professors who say he displayed a lack of judicial restraint at a hearing last week that should disqualify him.
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New Bern, N.C., is dealing with flooding and clean-up from Hurricane Florence. Many homes and businesses have no power, but one business is open: a favorite local restaurant, and people are flocking in.
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McCain was shot down during the Vietnam War and was held captive and tortured for years. The ordeal helped fuel his political career. -
George Washington grew cannabis. Not the kind you toke, but the kind to make rope. Industrial hemp was returned to Mount Vernon this year to help cultivate a new image for the crop. -
The Charlotte Housing Authority requires that people who get housing subsidies work — and the program is considered a success story. But helping people become self-sufficient remains a challenge. -
Student-led demonstrations calling for an end to gun violence gained traction after the shooting at a Parkland, Fla. high school. As the year ends, here's a look at how the movement has gone. -
Students across the country left their classrooms at 10 a.m. Friday to protest violence in schools. In Washington, D.C. students marched from the White House to the U.S. Capitol.
