U.S. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey this morning formally became a candidate for President of the United States.

“Together, America, we will rise,” Booker said in a video.

“I believe that we can build a country where no one is forgotten, no one is left behind; where parents can put food on the table; where there are good paying jobs with good benefits in every neighborhood; where our criminal justice system keeps us safe, instead of shuffling more children into cages and coffins; where we see the faces of our leaders on television and feel pride, not shame,” he said in the video.

“It is not a matter of can we, it’s a matter of do we have the collective will, the American will? I believe we do. Together, we will channel our common pain back into our common purpose.”

The former mayor of Newark became a U.S. Senator in 2013 following the death of Senator Frank Lautenberg.

Booker sent out the following email this morning:

Friend,
We are better when we help each other. I learned that early in my life.

When I was a baby, my parents tried to move us into a neighborhood with great public schools, but no realtors would sell us a home because of the color of our skin. A group of white volunteer lawyers, who had seen the news of civil rights activists marching in Selma on Bloody Sunday, were inspired to help black families in their own community, including mine.

They didn’t know me or my parents. They helped a family they had never met — and it changed the course of my entire life.

Like all of us, I know I can never pay back my blessings, but we can, we must, pay them forward — with service and leadership and the same defiant love that is the true soul of this nation.

That’s why I am running for president of the United States.

I believe in America. Like you, I will never give up on us.

That’s why I’ve spent my entire career tackling fights no one else would, running toward big challenges even when I was told they were impossible — from my first days in Newark taking on slumlords and helping families stay in their homes, to my time as mayor pulling communities together to usher in the city’s largest period of economic development and job creation in generations.

When people told me Washington, D.C. was a place where no one can get big things done, I refused to surrender to cynicism. I’ve spent my time as a senator building unlikely coalitions to stand up for people who need it most. That’s how I’ve helped pass laws to turn the tide against mass incarceration and spark historic investment in our nation’s vulnerable communities.

Right now, Americans’ faith is being shaken. Folks worry that what is tearing us apart is stronger than that which holds us together.

I’m running for president to change that.

I am running for president because I don’t believe that.

I am running for president because the lines that divide us are nowhere near as strong as the ties that bind us.

I am running for president because across this country we are facing common pain and we must have leadership that can reignite our spirit of common purpose — to build a more fair and more just nation for everyone.

I am running for president because when we stand together and work together, there is nothing we can’t accomplish. Our history tells this truth and we must boldly live it now.

I believe we can build a country where families have more money at the end of their month than month at the end of their money. Where our criminal justice system keeps us safe instead of shuffling our children into cages and coffins.

Where we see the faces of our leaders on television and feel pride instead of shame.

No one person can solve all our problems. But if we’re willing to help each other — to see each other — we can rise. Despite our divisions, despite the hatred of some and the economic hardship of many, our shared sacrifice and common struggle will ensure that we can achieve things others say can’t be done.

I am running for president of the United States of America.