Cory Booker

Cory Booker is an American politician who was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 2013 representing New Jersey, becoming the state’s first Black senator. On the evening of March 31, 2025, Booker took to the floor of the Senate and, invoking the memory of the late Rep. John Lewis, said he intended to make “some good trouble” in what he described as a “moral moment” for the country. For the next 25 hours, Booker spoke in protest of the actions of Pres. Donald Trump, delivering what became the longest Senate speech in U.S. history.

Booker was born in Washington, D.C., to parents who were executives at IBM. The family later relocated to New Jersey. He attended Stanford University, where he studied political science (B.A., 1991) and sociology (M.A., 1992). Awarded a Rhodes scholarship, he went to the University of Oxford, where he received a bachelor’s degree in history (1994). Booker then attended Yale Law School, earning a doctorate in jurisprudence in 1997.

After working for the Urban Justice Center in New York City, Booker ran for a seat on the Newark City Council in 1998, and he surprised many by defeating a longtime incumbent. After assuming office, Booker sought to combat an epidemic of drug abuse, and he took up residence in one of Newark’s most crime-afflicted areas. In 2002 he ran for mayor of the city but was defeated; the race was the focus of the acclaimed documentary Street Fight (2005). A second bid, in 2006, however, was successful. As mayor, he garnered national attention for initiatives on gun control and violence abatement, among other measures. After Frank Lautenberg died in 2013, a special election to fill his U.S. Senate seat was held, and Booker easily won the election.

As a senator, Booker became known for his efforts at bipartisan cooperation, although he often adopted liberal causes. He notably was a vocal supporter of same-sex marriage, and he called for an increase in the federal minimum wage. He also supported tax increases for the wealthy. Booker cosponsored legislation that reformed the criminal justice system, and the bill was signed into law in 2018. The following year Booker announced that he was running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020. However, he struggled for support in a crowded field of candidates, and in January 2020 he suspended his campaign.

Booker’s historic address surpassed that of South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond, who, in 1957, spoke in the Senate for 24 hours and 18 minutes against the Civil Rights Act of 1957. As he eclipsed the record, Booker nodded Thurmond as a motivator.

“To hate him is wrong, and maybe my ego got too caught up that if I stood here, maybe, maybe, just maybe, I could break this record of the man who tried to stop the rights upon which I stand. I’m not here though because of his speech. I’m here despite his speech. I’m here because as powerful as he was, the people were more powerful.”