Cory Booker talks dating Rosario Dawson amid 2020 presidential race

Actress Rosario Dawson revealed last week that she and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey were officially an item. Now, the 2020 presidential candidate is opening up about their relationship.

Booker, 49, talked about the public reaction to their relationship Wednesday on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” where he discussed his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 and the Twitter habit of the current occupation of the Oval Office.

He offered context about the now-famous TMZ video in which Dawson was asked about her relationship with the senator.

“You know, she was visiting me in D.C., and then she left to the airport, and she got ambushed at the airport,” Booker recalled. “I suddenly get this little video from her saying ‘I got TMZ’d! I don’t have makeup on this and this and that.”

All in all, he said she survived the TMZ ambush well, adding, “She’s just an incredible human being.”

Very few presidents have moved into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue alone; most were widowers, such as Thomas Jefferson (1800), Martin Van Buren (1836) and Chester A. Arthur, who took the oath of office after President James Garfield died in 1881. The bachelor pool is even smaller: James Buchanan (1856) and Grover Cleveland (1884 and 1892), who married after taking office his first time.

When Booker was asked about his marital status and the presidency by radio host Charlamagne tha God in February, he revealed, “I got a boo” and said he was dating someone “who is really special.”

Booker agreed with DeGeneres’ assessment that dating during a presidential campaign would be difficult because “people are watching.”

But he sounded up for the challenge: “As our relationship grows its difficult, but she is such a deeply soulful person,” he said. “And has taught me a lot of lessons about love already. Sometimes, you show the greatest strength when you make yourself vulnerable. She really has this nurturing spirit that has made me more courageous not just in the love that I project and want to see in our country, but I think in our own personal relationships to love more fearlessly. I’m very, very blessed to be with somebody that makes me a better person.”

Should Booker decide to follow the example of Grover Cleveland and marry while in office, DeGeneres agreed to officiate.

“If you go in (to the presidency) single and then you have a wedding in the White House – I mean, we would watch,” she said. “That would be like our royal wedding. That would be great.”

Read more at usatoday.com.