Booker leads 2020 candidates in missed votes amid presidential bid

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) has missed more votes than any other member of Congress running for president, according to data from Quorum.

The big picture: The New Jersey lawmaker's campaign has failed to gain traction, and he did not qualify for the December debate due to low polling. He has not yet qualified for the January debate either. Booker has previously warned that insufficient fundraising could cause him to drop out of the race.

• Booker's percentage of missed votes is closely followed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, a frontrunner in early voting states Iowa and New Hampshire.
• Booker circulated a letter in November calling for the Democratic National Committee to lower its qualifying criteria for the debates. All seven candidates who qualified for the December debate signed on, as did former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro, who has since dropped out of the race.

The head of the New Jersey Republican Party has urged Booker to spend more time on his senatorial duties and less effort campaigning, NJ.com reports.

• Other candidates' time away from Congress has drawn attention. Colorado's 9 News has compared Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), who has missed the fewest Senate votes since launching his presidential bid, to his counterpart, Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), who has a near-perfect voting record.
• Hawaii's former Gov. Neil Abercrombie also called on Rep. Tulsi Gabbard to resign, citing her campaigning in lieu of casting her House votes, per CBS News.

Of note: Several 2020 candidates are not members of Congress and therefore not subject to the same standard.

The Booker campaign has not replied to a request for comment.

Go deeper:

• 2020 presidential election: Track the candidates
• Cory Booker's campaign says it raised $6.6 million in Q4