When Sen. Cory Booker took to the Senate floor for a marathon 25-hour speech earlier this month, he didn’t just break records — he grabbed the nation’s attention. The New Jersey Democrat’s historic stand set a new benchmark for the longest continuous speech in Senate history. Could it become a rallying cry in his party’s growing resistance to President Donald Trump’s flood of executive orders?
For frustrated Democrats, the timing couldn’t have been better. The party’s base, simmering over what they viewed as a timid response to Trump’s agenda, found in Booker the fighter they’d been waiting for — and the response was swift. Some clips of the speech pulled in over a million likes. And for Booker’s longtime supporters, it felt like poetic justice: He shattered a nearly 70-year-old record set by the late segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond, who had once used a marathon speech of his own to protest the Civil Rights Act of 1957.
“The Democratic base and Democratic voters are looking for fighters,” leftist strategist Raj Goyle told Katie Couric Media. “They realize so much is under assault right now — and what Cory did was effectively meet that moment.”
Republican strategist Jeanette Hoffman offered a similar take from the other side of the aisle. “[Booker] is framing himself as a fighter and a reformer, and I think that’s what people want from the Democratic Party right now.”
Booker’s political history — and possible presidential aspirations
That headline-grabbing speech wasn’t the first time Booker drew public attention for an unconventional approach. The year after he won a 1998 runoff election for a seat on Newark’s city council, he launched a 10-day hunger strike, camping out in a tent at a housing project to draw attention to rampant drug dealing.
But his latest round of activism didn’t stop at the Senate floor. He’s taken a version of his record-breaking speech on the road, appearing at town hall meetings in New Jersey and, more recently, Arizona. It’s part of a broader Democratic push to engage directly with voters — particularly in red districts — on issues like the economy and affordability.
“Town halls and listening tours are our chance to cut past the headlines and sound bites,” said Jonae Wartel, a partner at political consulting firm Arc Initiatives. “They allow us to really hear people and understand what they’re concerned about in this moment.”
Now, whispers of another White House run are growing louder for the New Jersey senator. In his first presidential bid, during the 2020 race, Booker campaigned on a message of unity but struggled to gain traction, hampered by sluggish fundraising and single-digit polling.
But could the odds be shifting in his favor? An unofficial “Cory Booker for President 2028” webpage has already surfaced, fueling the speculation. He’s also climbing in early primary polling, coming in second behind former Vice President Kamala Harris with 11 percent support.
“People have looked at Cory Booker for quite some time,” Sara Sadhwani, an assistant professor of politics at Pomona College, tells Katie Couric Media. “Even if you go back to 2016, there was chatter about whether or not he would make a good vice presidential pick along with Hillary Clinton.”
Still, Goyle urged caution, warning that it’s far too early to draw conclusions. “Frankly, we’re only now getting our sea legs” in Trump’s second term, he said. Others echoed that sentiment — Wartel noted that Booker’s move is just the beginning of what could be a long journey for Democrats as they work to define their path forward.
“The Democratic Party has a lot of work to do to regain its footing with voters,” she said. “That means real soul-searching — and making sure we’re prioritizing listening to both the people who turned out in this election and those who stayed home.”
A shot in the arm for Democratic messaging
Even if Booker doesn’t end up running for president again, the strategists we spoke to agree that his Senate floor speech injected much-needed momentum into a Democratic Party still reeling from losses of the White House and both chambers of Congress. The very next day, liberal candidate Susan Crawford decisively defeated conservative Brad Schimel for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court in a race that was closely watched around the nation. And while Republicans held onto two House seats in Florida, Democrats nonetheless outperformed expectations.
Booker also isn’t the only one drumming up Democratic enthusiasm. Progressives like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have been touring the country, speaking directly to communities about Trump’s policies. According to Sanders’s communications director, Anna Bahr, the pair drew a crowd of 36,000 in Los Angeles alone — and they’ve even attracted big turnouts in deep-red states like Idaho, where more than 12,000 people showed up.
Sadhwani believes Ocasio-Cortez, Sanders, and Booker represent specific sectors of the Democratic Party — ideological divides that could come to a head before the next presidential election, or even as soon as next year’s midterms.
“AOC and Cory Booker represent different wings of the Democratic Party,” she said. “So there will need to be a reckoning between those factions by the time we get to 2028.”
While Wartel acknowledged those internal differences, she emphasized that what matters most is that Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, and Booker are working to reconnect with voters.
“It’s less about factions and more about the unifying message behind these concerns over what the Trump administration is doing,” she said. “This isn’t just a progressive issue or a moderate one — it’s an American one.”
