Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker, a rising-star Democrat who spoke last month at his party’s national convention, will take on a smaller audience today when he addresses Northwestern students.

NU College Democrats is hosting the on-campus speech, which is expected to track closely with Booker’s inspirational stem-winder, “How to Change the World with Your Bare Hands.”

Student seating starts 6:30 p.m. in Cahn Auditorium.

The event is free and tickets will be available at the door on a first-come, first-served basis. Booker’s speech will be followed by a Q-and-A session.

College Democrats co-president Adam Roth said his group picked the celebrity mayor because his name is likely to come up in the next presidential race.

“He’s definitely a possible candidate for 2016,” the Weinberg sophomore said. “He’s been incredibly popular as mayor. We looked at a lot of people, but he was definitely the most energetic.”

Roth added that he has heard “amazing reviews” of Booker’s on-campus talks, which are mostly apolitical.

Booker shared a bipartisan message with his most recent audience outside Newark.

“Those who stand up and join with one another, and understand the bond and the need for goodness and kindness and mercy, are the ones who make for a richer, more robust democracy,” Booker said Sunday at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., according to Citizens Voice.

At the Democratic National Convention in September, Booker delivered his party’s platform address, echoing central themes of President Barack Obama’s re-election pitch.

“We choose forward. We choose inclusion. We choose growing together,” Booker said. “We choose American economic might and muscle, standing strong on the bedrock of the American ideal: a strong, empowered and ever-growing middle class.”

— Patrick Svitek