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 Republican from Nebraska speaks with NPR's Steve Inskeep about the impeachment of former President Donald Trump, the future of the GOP and working with the Biden administration. -
The cremated remains arrived with ceremony in a motorcade with members of Sicknick's family and were carried by colleagues into the Capitol. His urn rests on a pedestal next to a U.S. flag. -
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state has 60 refrigerated units available if needed. He also said that 5,000 body bags were distributed to some of the hardest-hit counties. -
Tamika Palmer says she wants the officers who killed her daughter to be charged. "Even in the very beginning of this year, she kept saying 2020 was her year," she said. "And she was absolutely right." -
Allentown, Pa., police released a video showing police subduing a man. Part of the video shows an officer placing a knee to the man's neck, drawing comparisons to the George Floyd incident. -
Tulsa officials have begun a test excavation to determine if land on city-owned Oaklawn Cemetery is the site of a mass grave of victims of the race massacre. Most of the victims have never been found. -
The Washington Redskins have announced the team will be dropping its moniker, which is widely considered a slur against Native Americans. The head coach and team owner are developing a new name. -
Michael Drake, a physician, previously served as the president of The Ohio State University. He was unanimously approved by the University of California Board of Regents on Tuesday. -
U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, a co-owner of the Atlanta Dream, wrote a letter to the WNBA saying she was "incredibly disappointed" that the league would align itself with the Black Lives Matter movement. -
The Manhattan District Attorney's Office says it is initiating a prosecution of Amy Cooper over false reporting of an incident. In a cellphone video, she claimed a Black man was threatening her.
