Booker and Gillibrand are both the closest to the center of the party ideologically, but have demographic considerations that make them not very "generic".
Voted Gillibrand.
I'd like to hear a few of the 50% of Democrats who are to the right of Cory Booker economically, LOL. Seriously, I know the "neoliberal Democratic Party that abandoned working Americans and now Trump is populist and muh realignment" is gospel here, but GMAFB.
ranks Cory Booker as the 4th most progressive Senator based on lifetime rankings, making him more progressive than Sherrod Brown, Al Franken, Tammy Baldwin, and Jeff Merkley to name a few.
Sure, its only one ranking and these things have to be taken with a grain of salt but it just goes to show that Booker's "moderatism" is way over-blown. He's a run-of-the-mill liberal Democrat by any objective standard who will have a massive advantage in the primary if he's able to consolidate African-American voters.
The ones on the Forum who keep comparing Booker to Howell Heflin or Dale Bumpers are the one who need to GMAFB.
Poll
