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Sen. Cory Booker ends 2020 presidential campaign

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., on Monday announced the end of his bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

“Today I’m suspending my campaign for president with the same spirit with which it began,” Booker said in a video posted on social media. “It is my faith in us, my faith in us together as a nation, that we share common pain and common problems that can only be solved with a common purpose and a sense of common cause.”

Booker announced his candidacy for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination to great fanfare last year on the first day of Black History Month. In his announcement, he noted he was “the only senator who goes home to a low-income, inner city community” in Newark, calling the city, “the first community that took a chance on me,” CNN reported.

Booker exited the presidential race three weeks before voters were set to head to the polls for the Iowa Caucus. Up until his announcement he kept an active campaign schedule, but he struggled for months to gain traction in the polls, Cox Media Group’s Jamie Dupree reported. He did not qualify for Tuesday’s Democratic debate.

Booker is the third Democratic presidential hopeful to end a bid for the White House in 2020. Earlier this month, spiritual guru Marianne Williamson and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro announced their exits from the race. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-California, former U.S. congressman Joe Sestak and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock suspended their campaigns in December.

Twelve candidates remain in the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

Check back for updates to this developing story.