WASHINGTON — New Jersey’s Democratic Sen. Cory Booker set a new record Tuesday for the longest continuous Senate floor speech in the chamber’s history. His speech didn’t come without some Georgia connections, with mentions of the late Rep. John Lewis and Former President Jimmy Carter.
Booker bypassed a record set 68 years ago by then-Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, a segregationist and southern Democrat, filibustered the advance of the Civil Rights Act in 1957. Throughout his determined performance, Booker repeatedly invoked civil rights leader Lewis, arguing that overcoming opponents like Thurmond would require more than just talking.
“You think we got civil rights one day because Strom Thurmond — after filibustering for 24 hours — you think we got civil rights because he came to the floor one day and said, ‘I’ve seen the light,’” Booker said. “No, we got civil rights because people marched for it, sweat for it and John Lewis bled for it.”
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Also during his speech, Booker shared a story about Lewis, in which he detailed a memory after his dad died from Parkinson’s—the same month he said he was preparing to get sworn in.
“You walk into his office, and it looks like a civil rights museum- except he’s in all the pictures,” he said of Lewis, and those in the room laughed.
“And this is John Lewis. We, who knew him, this was him. Mountain of a man, he had already prepared eggs and grits, a good Southern breakfast, and wouldn’t let my mom and I get up. And he serves us all, and he humbly is saying, ‘this is why I marched, this is why I sacrifice for history-making days like this,” Booker said. “He told us how special this was for him. He told me that he would be right here, where my friends are sitting watching me get sworn, in and how proud he was going to be. In a sense, he stood in for my dad on this floor. And then boom, I’m a senator.”
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Booker said another fond moment with Lewis happened when he first met Carter. He asked Lewis if he wanted to see the former pastor teach Sunday School in Georgia.
“So I have the singular greatest road trip,” Booker said. “I fly into Atlanta, we get into a car and we drive all those hours to Plains, Georgia.”
He said they sat in the front row, describing the visit as “this marvelous incredible moment.”
He ended his record-setting speech, which lasted 25 hours and 5 minutes, by telling others to “not go along with business as usual” and to cause some “good trouble,” just as John Lewis would.
Reporting from the Associated Press contributed to this report.