Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) set a new record for the longest Senate speech in history on Monday and Tuesday by holding the upper chamber’s floor for more than 25 hours.
Booker slammed the policies President Trump has implemented in his second White House term and criticized the Republican Party’s spending cuts in their upcoming tax legislation during his speech that last 25 hours and 5 minutes, surpassing former Sen. Strom Thurmond (S.C.), who held the previous record as he spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes.
Booker's effort was both a physical and mental feat that required stamina and willpower, as the New Jersey senator didn't eat food or drink water during his marathon speech, which helped him avoid needing to use a restroom.
This is how Booker, who has represented the Garden State since 2013, accomplished the record Senate speech.
Bathroom
Booker turns 56 later this month, an age where many men cannot avoid going to the bathroom during the middle of an eight-hour sleep.
But Booker did not use the bathroom for the entirety of his speech.
After it was over, he said he allowed himself to be dehydrated to get through the speech.
"Again, I don't want my doctor to be mad at me, but I really spent time dehydrating myself beforehand, so I did not have to go to the bathroom," Booker told reporters Tuesday night.
"My challenge was, was that my strategy was to stop eating, I think I stopped eating on Friday, and then to stop drinking the night before I started on Monday, and that had its benefits and it had its really downsides."
"And so instead of fighting or figuring out how to go the bathroom, I ended up, I think really, unfortunately, dehydrating myself."
Booker had to remain standing and could not leave his desk for the length of his speech.
To help prevent Booker from sitting down, a Senate aide took away Booker’s chair, according to Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.).
Booker is a former high school football player who was named to USA Today's all-USA high school team in 1986. He played tight end at Stanford University and made the all-academic team for the Pac-10 conference.
After his marathon speech, Booker credited his athletic background.
As a former athlete, he said "I know when you get [dehydrated], you get a lot of cramps. That was the biggest thing I was fighting, was that different muscle groups are starting to really cramp up. And, and every once a while I had, like, a spasm."
Food and water
Booker didn't eat the entire time he was on the Senate floor blasting Trump's policies, sparking chatter that he should run for president in 2028 for a second time. Booker previously was a candidate in 2020.
"I fasted for days into it, I stopped drinking water a long time ago. I think that had good and bad benefits; I definitely started cramping up from lack of water,” Booker told reporters. “So if some of you saw me really drink nothing at the end, that was just trying … to stop my muscles from cramping.”
According to the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, a man should drink about 15 and a half cups of fluids a day to remain healthy. Booker didn't come close to those numbers as he talked and talked, but the senator did hydrate himself somewhat during the lengthy speech, occasionally drinking from glasses of water near his desk.
Fatigue
Booker also completed an all-nighter, depriving himself of any sleep.
He acknowledged it wasn't easy and that it was even harder in his 50s than it would have been in his 40s.
"So it's just a lot of physical challenges, definitely making it that long for a guy, as I said, Chris Murphy and I joked, we're not [in] the same spot in our 40s like we were nine years ago," Booker said.
Murphy in 2016 held a lengthy filibuster of 14 hours and 50 minutes after dozens of people were killed in the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando. Murphy, 51, was 43 at the time.
Murphy joined Booker for a portion of Booker's speech and they discussed the similarities of their efforts.
Spirituality
Booker credited faith and prayer for his speech.
"So I'm just really grateful. And I will tell you something, a lot of folks prayed with me. A lot of folks prayed for me, and I'm a person of faith," he told reporters.
He said he and Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) prayed on the Senate floor together, and that he took inspiration from a Bible verse.
"It's Isaiah, 40:31. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings ... as if on eagles," Booker said. "They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and they ... shall not faint."
"So I just really lean on faith that we can get through this. And I'm just so grateful for my colleagues who really covered me in prayer."
Booker also leaned on his colleagues for help.
The senator had fellow Democrats in the chamber ask questions and offer speeches, which gave him slight speaking breaks even as he did not leave the chamber.
Breaks
Booker did have a brief break at noon EDT Tuesday when he halted his speech to permit the Senate to have an opening prayer.
The Senate Chaplain Barry Black specifically thanked Capitol Police, Senate floor staff and pages for their work that stretched “throughout the night.”
Booker read some of the letters his constituents wrote to him, saying they are being impacted by the actions of the Trump administration.
“I may be tired and a little hoarse, but as I said again and again on the Senate floor, this is a moment where we cannot afford to be silent, when we must speak up," Booker said in a Tuesday night post on the social platform X. “What’s most clear to me tonight is that this is just the beginning, that Americans across this country, no matter their title or party, are ready to be heard.”
“I believe that history will show we rose to meet this moment,” the senator added. “It will show we did not let the chaos and division go unanswered. It will show that when our president chose to spread lies and sow fear, we chose to come together, to work together, and to rise together.”
History
In setting his record, Booker surpassed Thurmond, who had held the previous record with a 24-hour, 18-minute filibuster of civil rights legislation.
It couldn't have been a more different senator breaking the record of Thurmond, a supporter of racial segregation during his time as a member of the Democratic and then Republican Party.
Booker said he absolutely knew whose record he was breaking, and indicated it meant something.
"I was very aware of Strom Thurmond's record since I've gotten to the Senate," he said.
"I always felt there was a strange shadow in this institution that the longest speech," given all the issues and causes that have come up, was held by Thurmond.
"It just seemed wrong to me," Booker said. "Always seemed wrong."
Booker said he'd actually hoped that Murphy would break the record.
"I had this hope that Chris Murphy would do it actually, so I definitely had it on my mind. But as Chris and I joked, I'm nine years older than when he and I did it for 15 hours, and my back was sore and my legs were hurting, so I just didn't know if I could," Booker said.
"So I didn't want to set expectations. The mission was really to elevate the voices of Americans, to tell some of their really painful stories, very emotional stories, and to let go and let God do the rest."