Cory Booker's 'Filibuster': Can it break the record for the longest Senate speech?

The Democratic Sen. New Jersey Cory Booker held the Senate’s floor with a marathon speech that lasted all night and until Tuesday afternoon in a performance of endurance to show Democrats’ objections to President Donald Trump’s actions. Sen, Cory Booker, Dn.J., speaks on the Senate floor on Tuesday morning, April 1, 2025. (Senate Television via AP) Booker took to the Senate floor on Monday night and said he would stay there as long as he was “physically capable”. More than 18 hours later, the 55-year-old Senator, a former football stiff end, was clearly exhausted, but still going. It was a remarkable performance of endurance – one of the longest in the history of the Senate – because Democrats are trying to show their frustrated supporters that they are doing everything to dispute Trump’s agenda. “These are not normal times in our country,” Booker said as he began in his speech. ‘And they should not be treated in the US Senate as such. The threats to the American people and American democracy are serious and urgent, and we all have to do more to stand against them. ‘ Pacing, when he sometimes leaned on his podium, led Booker for hours against the cutting of social security officials, led by Trump advisor Elon Musk’s government’s effectiveness of the government. He listed the effects of Trump’s early orders and spoke with concern that broader cuts could come to the social safety net, although Republican lawmakers say the program will not be touched. Booker also read what he said, letters from voters, who were wearing his reading glasses and rumble. One writer is upset about the talk of the Republican President of the Annexation of Greenland and Canada and an ‘threatening constitutional crisis’. “I hear you. I see you, and I am partly here because of letters like yours, ‘Booker said. When his speech entered the business world on Tuesday afternoon, Booker received help from the democratic colleagues, who gave him a break to talk to ask him a question and praised his actions. Booker gave in to questions, but made sure he would not give up the floor. He remained standing to comply with the senior rules. “Your strength, your strength, your clarity was just nothing less, and the whole of America is paying attention to what you say,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said while asking Booker a question on the Senate floor. “The whole of America needs to know that there are so many problems, the disastrous actions of this administration.” While Booker stood for an hour after hour, he had nothing more than a few glasses of water to maintain him. “I won’t complain,” Booker said after one colleague asked how he was going on Tuesday afternoon. Democratic assistants looked out of the gallery of the room, and Sen. Chris Murphy accompanied Booker during his speech. Murphy was returning the camaraderie that Booker gave him in 2016 when the Connecticut democrat held the floor for almost 15 hours to argue for gun control legislation. The record for the longest individual speech belongs to Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, who filtered 24 hours and 18 minutes against the 1957 Civil Rights Act, according to the Senate’s records. While it was rolling over the past 18 hours, Booker’s speech was the sixth longest in Senate’s history. Only one other sitting senator spoke longer. In 2013, Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican of Texas, held the floor for 21 hours and 19 minutes to contest the Affordable Care Act. Booker called on Thurmond and the leader of the civil rights Tuesday morning and the leader of the civil rights, arguing that changing history would require the public to get involved. “You think we got civil rights one day, because Strom Thurmond – after you filtered for 24 hours – do you think we got civil rights because he came to the floor one day and said, ‘I saw the light,’ ‘Booker said. “No, we got civil rights because people marched for it, sweated for it and John Lewis blew for it.” Booker’s speech was not a filibuster, which is a speech intended to stop the progress of a specific legislation. Instead, Booker’s performance was a broader criticism of Trump’s agenda, which was intended to retain the Senate’s business and draw attention to what Democrats are doing to dispute the president. Without a majority in one of the congressional room, the Democrats were almost completely closed out of legislative power, but they turned to procedural maneuvers to try to stop Republicans. Booker serves his second term in the Senate. He was an unsuccessful presidential candidate in 2020, when he launched his campaign from the steps of his Newark home. He dropped after struggling to gain a foothold in a packed field, and he did not have a threshold to meet in a January 2020 debate. But while Democrats are looking for a next generation leadership, frustrated with old at the top, Booker’s speech can sement his status as a leading figure in the party’s opposition to Trump. Even before he went to the national political stage, Booker was considered an emerging star in the Democratic Party in New Jersey as mayor of Newark, the largest city of the state from 2006 to 2013, and he played a tight end for Stanford University’s football team. He became a Rhodes scholar and graduated from Yale Law before starting his career as a lawyer for nonprofit. He was elected to the US Senate for the first time in 2013 during a special election held after the death of established Democrat Frank Lautenberg. He won his first full term in 2014 and re -election in 2020.