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.
The Power of Prayer
“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.
The Bible Verse in Cory Booker’s Wallet
Booker said he took everything out of his wallet before he began speaking Monday night 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.”