“Isaiah 40:31” inspired Sen. Cory Booker during iconic speech

Sometimes the most powerful thing a senator can bring to the floor isn’t a list of talking points, but a Bible verse tucked in a wallet.

That’s what Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., had on hand when he took to the Senate floor Monday to begin what would become a 25-hour rebuke of the Trump administration’s policies — breaking the late segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond’s decades-old filibuster record in the process.

The detail about the Bible verse emerged afterward as reporters asked how he spoke so long without a bathroom break. Booker, 59, said he prepared by fasting and dehydrating in advance — a tactic that caused cramping and nearly derailed his effort. But he knew he’d need more than physical stamina to make it through.

“I will tell you something: A lot of folks prayed with me. A lot of folks prayed for me,” he said.

Booker told reporters he is “a person of faith,” so to prepare, his family and fellow Black senators — Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., and Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del. — joined him in prayer.

“Lisa Blunt Rochester prayed with me right there on the Senate floor,” he said, while Warnock prayed with him the night before.

Around 6 p.m. Monday, March 31. 2025, Booker stepped to a lectern on the Senate floor and began a marathon speech designed to disrupt the Senate’s regular order, serving notice to the White House and his legislative colleagues.

Booker said he took everything out of his wallet before he began speaking except for one prized possession he kept tucked inside: a handwritten note card with his favorite scripture written on it. 

He pulled it out and read it to the reporters.

“It’s Isaiah, 40:31. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings … as eagles,” Booker recited. “They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and they … shall not faint.”

The Bible verse, frequently referenced in speeches by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., frames endurance as active hope — not passive waiting — and divine strength as relief for human frailty.

It seems Booker’s historic feat embodied that renewal for viewers who cheered him online, prayed for his success, and praised his defiance of authoritarianism as both patriotic and faith driven.

“I just really lean on faith that we could get through this,” Booker said. “And I’m just so grateful for my colleagues who really covered me in prayer.”

The speech racked up more than 350 million likes on TikTok Live. Hundreds of thousands of viewers tuned in via livestream on YouTube and other social platforms to watch Booker beat Thurmond’s record. It energized Booker’s beleaguered party.

And, as the Trump administration continues to dismantle civil rights laws and protections — and literally erase the movement from classrooms and history books — Booker delivered a powerful political victory for Black America, repeatedly invoking Lewis’s name along the way.

As Booker’s speech went deep into Tuesday afternoon, some 30 Senate and House Democrats used chamber rules to give him breathers. Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York — the minority leader and top Democrat, who had to cancel a planned book tour because of liberal anger over his decision to help Republicans dodge a government shutdown — cheered Booker on, calling his performance a “tour de force.” 

“Do you know how proud your caucus is of you?” Schumer told Booker, to loud applause. “Do you know how proud America is of you?” 

From the start, Booker assailed what he called Trump’s assault on democracy, his overturning of Democratic norms and his plan to slash entitlements to fund a tax cut for the rich. Over the course of the speech, his voice boomed and fell; he grew hoarse but continued.

He demanded accountability from the White House and Congress. He urged his fellow citizens to rise up and oppose the president’s agenda.

“This is the moment where our most precious ideas of our country are being tested,” he said. “Where does the Constitution live: On paper? Or in our hearts?” 

Booker even mentioned Thurmond, a South Carolina Dixiecrat-turned-Republican who likely could not have conceived of a Black senator, much less one who could challenge his record. 

“To hate [Thurmond] is wrong,” Booker said, yet “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.”

This story originally appeared here.