Apr 2, 2025 - Politics & Policy

How Booker pulled off the Senate's longest speech ever

Stephen Neukam

This is Cory Booker — Photo: ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) relied on a roughly four-day fast, his Hoka Clifton sneakers, 15 binders with 1,160 pages of material and a steady stream of notes from staff to gut through his 25-hour speech.

Why it matters: Booker, 55, had to remain continuously standing on the Senate floor to break the late segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond's record.

Unlike Thurmond's bathroom break, Booker never left the floor.

Zoom in: Booker was cramping from dehydration near the end of his speech, he said Tuesday night.

🪑 Staffers took away Booker's chair on the floor to avoid him accidentally sitting down, or maybe to reduce the torture of looking at a chair he couldn't use.
✉️ Staffers were passing Booker notes reminding him to conserve his voice and relaying stories from constituents.

Booker's first post-speech meal included pineapple and watermelon.

His Oura ring sleep score was zero, he told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Tuesday night. No word yet on what his other Oura stats looked like after a day and change on his feet.

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How Booker pulled off the Senate's longest speech ever

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