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 Democratic presidential candidate told NPR that impeachment is necessary, regardless of whether it is good or bad for the Democratic Party.
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"I believe that the best thing for the country would be not only impeachment but removal," the presidential candidate told NPR when asked if the House inquiry was good for the country. -
Saturday marks five years since the pro-democracy Umbrella Movement formed and leads up to the 70th anniversary of the People's Republic of China next week. -
In an interview that appears in an upcoming PBS documentary, Mohammed bin Salman denies he had prior knowledge of the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. -
The National Weather Service in Houston said the amount of rainfall in Houston and Galveston on Thursday was "one for the record books." At least four deaths have been blamed on the storm. -
Picket lines began forming outside GM plants after the United Auto Workers voted Sunday to begin a strike at midnight. Nearly 50,000 workers are affected by the work stoppage. -
The Trump administration says only the federal government can set tailpipe emissions standards. It's the latest move in a months long standoff over efforts to weaken a key Obama-era climate rule. -
The Bahamas health minister announced the higher death toll late Wednesday, as Dorian continued shadowing the U.S. East Coast. -
Dorian is roughly 105 miles off the shore of Fort Pierce, Fla. It has maximum sustained winds of 105 miles per hour. Officials in the Bahamas say there are at least seven storm-related deaths. -
The prime minister said five people were killed on Abaco Island. The Category 3 storm sustains 125 mph winds with "life-threatening" storm surge levels expected on Florida's east coast by late Monday.
