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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The Republican nominee addressed the annual Values Voter Summit occurring this weekend in Washington, D.C. He was not among the top few primary candidates preferred by conservative Christian voters. -
Gregory Cheadle tells NPR he was not offended when presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump pointed to him at a recent California campaign rally and said, "Look at my African-American over here."
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Pollster Celinda Lake says of Donald Trump: "He has been his own worst enemy with women. He's like your worst date ever--it just keeps getting worse and worse and worse as the evening goes on." -
Justice Antonin Scalia's body lies in repose on Friday at the Supreme Court where dignitaries — including the president — and the general public will pay their respects. -
New Hampshire has a reputation for strong voter participation and independents. It's easy to get on the ballot, and the state has had a better track record of picking GOP nominees in recent years. -
Nearly two-thirds of teens say social media makes them feel more connected to what's happening in their significant other's life, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center.
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It was a somber broadcast this morning at WDBJ in Roanoke, Va., one day after a former station employee gunned down two former co-workers on live television.
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The Met says it is committed to "colorblind casting" and that its production of Otello this fall will be the first without dark makeup since the opera was first seen at the company in 1891. -
A group that raises money for police officers subjected to investigation or lawsuits is using a simulator program to help outsiders understand the challenges of the job. -
Neurosurgeon Ben Carson is a darling of conservatives. It started when he criticized President Obama's health care law and other policies at a Prayer Breakfast with the president just a few feet away.
