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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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. -
President Cecile Richards said accusations that the organization illegally profits from tissue provided to researchers have "nothing to do with our fetal tissue donation compliance process." -
McCarthy, the current Majority Leader, had been the favorite ahead of Thursday's closed-door vote by House Republicans. -
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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Vester Lee Flanagan allegedly shot Alison Parker, 24, and photojournalist Adam Ward, 27, at a shopping plaza Wednesday morning. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police say. -
A Japanese company sent liquor samples to the International Space Station. Unfortunately for the astronauts, they won't be able to celebrate the arrival of the stash with a toast. -
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. -
Golf is a sport that's been enjoyed by both Democrats and Republicans through the decades, but bipartisan golf outings may be disappearing like a shanked tee shot into a water hazard.
