Cory Booker was in the running to be President Obama's HUD Secretary after the 2012 election, but his criticizing Obama's attacks on Bain Capital caused Obama to nix the idea. Ultimately he ended up winning the 2013 special election for a Senate seat in New Jersey.
What if Booker had ended up as HUD secretary? How would the NJ Senate race have gone?
Booker was seen as unstoppable, so good Republican candidates didn't run in the special election. A Moderate like Thomas Keane Jr (The Senate Minority Leader) or the incumbent Jeffrey Chiesa might have run. Frank Lonegan (the OTL candidate) was a Tea Party guy in a state like New Jersey, although whaty's more surprising is he only lost by 10 points to the dynamic Booker (Christie would win 60-40 that year). The Democrat probably would have been Congressman Rush Holt, NJ Speaker Sheila Oliver, or Congressman Frank Pallone.
Booker was interesting with his focus on urban renewal and has been considered fairly Kempian. He worked with Republican Senator Rand Paul on Economic Freedom Zones as a mean for promoting urban development.