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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Florida Gov. Rick Scott has called for an investigation into local authorities' reaction to the Parkland shooting. After numerous calls for release of the 911 tapes, the sheriff's office did so.
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Florida lawmakers have passed a package of gun control measures. Also, we hear about how the Chinese government is responding to President Trump's talk of steel tariffs.
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It's been a extraordinary week in Florida. Funerals, protest rallies, gun policy proposals and new details about what authorities knew about the gunman before the Parkland shooting.
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The FBI says it got a tip last month about the Florida shooting suspect, but failed to follow protocols to assess the threat.
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The 2012 GOP presidential nominee blasts Washington in an announcement video, saying, "Utah welcomes legal immigrants from around the world; Washington sends immigrants a message of exclusion." -
Throughout the crowds at Women's Marches on Saturday were thousands of knitted pink caps. People wore them to send a message to President Donald Trump.
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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. -
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio told the Miami Herald editorial board he has "stood by everything I ever said" during his presidential campaign. -
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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But the agency projects that its checkpoints will screen 100 million more people in 2016 than it did in 2013 — even as its workforce has been reduced by 12 percent over that same time period.
