With the longest speech in Senate history, Sen. Cory Booker actually managed to accomplish one thing that Democrats have struggled to do all this year: Delaying Republicans — even temporarily — from making progress on their agenda.
Now Democrats are saying they want to adopt more tactics like Booker’s record-breaking talkathon.
“Democrats and the pundit class have gotten very fussy about what is the exact right way to do the fighting,” Sen. Brian Schatz said. “I think what people want to see is some fights. They’re not sure exactly how they want us to fight, but they want us to take a few swings. And that’s what Cory is doing.”
Schatz added that Democrats can be “a bit too precious” about developing a strategy that everyone agrees on. “Everyone’s worried about looking cringe,” Schatz said. “And Cory just showed the appetite out there is for us to match the energy of the grassroots.”
For months, Democrats have been privately weighing how to resist a second Trump administration, after getting walloped in the 2024 elections. They don’t have control of either chamber of Congress. And while the filibuster remains intact in the Senate, their ability to stymie Republicans is limited by the GOP’s willingness to enact a legislative agenda through reconciliation.
President Donald Trump has shown no willingness to collaborate with Democrats on anything.
Early Democratic attempts to use their old resistance playbook haven’t garnered much praise. Members protesting outside closed government office buildings or incrementally delaying votes with verbal protests on the floor have drawn hems and haws. And, as far as legislative outcomes, Democrats haven’t been able to adjust those at all.
“We don’t have the votes in the Senate to stop it,” Sen. Peter Welch said. “It’s very frustrating for us and for our base.”
But Democratic senators say Booker’s speech is a model of what to shoot for: something big, something unusual that breaks through.
Despite some resentful taunts from Senate Republicans over Booker’s speech, the New Jersey Democrats managed to draw attention with his prolonged remarks on Trump’s cuts to government services, proposed cuts to benefits in upcoming GOP legislation and Trump falling short of his promises to lower prices for Americans. (On TikTok alone, Booker’s speech had garnered about 170 million likes by 5 p.m., just over 21 hours after he started.)
By making it 24 hours, Booker broke the record for the longest speech by a senator on the floor. The previous record was set by former Sen. Strom Thurmond, who was protesting against the Civil Rights Act.
“The question is what can be effective,” Welch said. “So doing things that are invisible are not necessarily effective. This is getting attention, and that’s what we need to show that we’re opposed.”
There are, of course, limits.
Democrats signaled they’re not quite ready to use every tool in their legislative toolbox to slow down progress. A notable amount of the Senate’s day-to-day work relies on all members agreeing to “unanimous consent” on procedural motions, meaning all 100 senators must agree to move along business.
But so far, this term, those sorts of objections have been used selectively.
“At various points, we’ve looked at almost everything,” Sen. John Hickenlooper said.
And while Hickenlooper didn’t seem ready to try to slow down each and every move, he pointed to the Department of Government Efficiency cutting jobs for veterans and said, “You bet I’ll slow it down to keep that from happening more and more.”
Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin told NOTUS that Democrats are making sure Republicans have to “check every box,” but added that Democrats haven’t “gone into that fine detail yet” of applying unanimous consent objections writ large.
Durbin paused after speaking and restated one word for emphasis: “Yet.”
Still, a handful of senators have deployed some blanket holds on Trump nominees. Sen. Ruben Gallego on Tuesday announced he will use all the tools available to him in order to delay confirmations for top nominees at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Schatz in February said he’d do the same with Trump’s State Department nominees, unless the gutted U.S. Agency for International Aid was restored.
That tactic isn’t new. Just last term, GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville objected to advancing hundreds of military nominees via unanimous consent in protest of the Biden administration’s abortion policies at the Department of Defense. Tuberville’s blanket hold created a massive backlog and drew rebukes from Senate Democrats — and even some Republicans.
Democratic leaders could have gone to individual votes on each of the nominees, but that would have consumed an inordinate amount of floor time. Instead, the backlog was cleared when Tuberville unceremoniously relented, having won no concessions from the administration in exchange.
In his speech, Booker himself said the Democratic Party is in need of change.
“I confess that I have been imperfect. I confess that I’ve been inadequate to the moment. I confess that the Democratic Party has made terrible mistakes that have gave a lane to this demagogue,” he said on the floor. “I confess we all must look in the mirror and say, ‘We will do better.’”
By Tuesday morning, after starting his speech around 7 p.m. on Monday, Booker was visibly tired. He was not allowed to sit throughout the process. He could not eat, and could only drink water or milk. He had to remain in his assigned desk’s orbit while talking, meaning he could not pace around, or leave the chamber. He could not take breaks. And yes, that applied to bathroom breaks, of which he had zero.
He had to remain talking, with only slight reprieves allowed when yielding to colleagues for a question. His usually bellowing voice grew audibly hoarse. In the late hours, he adopted a sort of waddle, gently hopping from one foot to the other within his allotted space in an apparent attempt to stay awake.
But by chewing up the entire day on Tuesday, Booker managed to delay the Senate’s regular flow of work. On an average Tuesday in session, senators would have at least a handful of votes. Thune and other members of leadership would have given opening speeches. Thune may have filed some cloture petitions by now.
By speaking all night, however, Booker gummed up the schedule and has pushed the Senate’s work on a budget later into the week, possibly into the weekend.
As Republican Sen. Mike Rounds put it on Tuesday, the rest of the week simply “depends on how much time Cory takes on the floor.”
—
Ursula Perano is a reporter at NOTUS. Ben T.N. Mause, who is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow, contributed to this report.