
Senator Cory Booker on Tuesday evening set a chamber record by assailing the policies of President Donald Trump in a speech that lasted more than 24 hours.
“I’m heading to the Senate floor because Donald Trump and Elon Musk have shown a complete disregard for the rule of law, the Constitution, and the needs of the American people,” Booker, a New Jersey Democrat, said in a post on X before beginning his marathon address about 7 p.m. on Monday.
The speech broke a record set by Senator Strom Thurmond, a South Carolina Democrat, who spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes in a failed attempt to defeat the Civil Rights Act of 1957 with a filibuster. He later became a Republican.
Although Booker’s speech, which ended shortly after 8 p.m., was not a filibuster, the attention it attracted showed that Democrats have begun to look ahead at the midterm elections of 2026 and the presidential race of 2028 after the devastating losses of last November.