ATLANTIC CITY – U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) arrived here at the conference center in Harrah’s with a big buildup afforded by Governor Phil Murphy and proceeded to pump up the crowd with “Let’s go New Jersey, let’s go Democrats, Let’s go America.”

He plugged Murphy.

“We have the hardest working governor in America. He is the James Brown of American politics,” Booker gushed of the Governor.

Then he tore into national politics at the front of the enormous room.

“We are in a moral moment in America,” Booker said. “This is not about right or left. This is about right or wrong. These next 46 days are perhaps the most defining days of my lifetime.

“They will speak to who we are as a nation,” he added. “I want to tell you why NJ is so important right now. From Van Drew all the way up to Mikie Sherrill, from Gottheimer to Andy Kim, the borders of this country of this state have a chance to say something to this Preisdent. We have a chance to send a message. The state of New Jersey is standing up for America. We reject what we see.”

When Booker mentioned “Mikie Sherrill,” the room went nuts.

“We in this room now have to take responsibility,” the senator said, “as though everything is in our hands. The history is not about people in Washington. It’s about grassroots.”