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 economic policies of Pres. Donald Trump, delivering what became the longest Senate speech in U.S. history. In November 2026 Booker was reelected to another term in the Senate after defeating his Republican challenger, Justin Murphy.

Early life and career

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, receiving a J.D. 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 Sen. Frank Lautenberg died in 2013, a special election to fill his U.S. Senate seat was held, and Booker easily won the election. He was reelected to a full six-year term in November 2014.

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U.S. Senate

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.

On March 31, 2025, Booker began what became the longest Senate speech in U.S. history when he—invoking the memory of the late Rep. John Lewis, who frequently said he intended to make “some good trouble”—spoke for 25 hours and 5 minutes to share stories of Americans harmed by the economic plans of the second Trump administration. 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 neared the record, Booker nodded to 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.”

Publications

Booker is the author of several books, including United: Thoughts on Finding Common Ground and Advancing the Common Good (2016) and Stand (2026).

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