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Sen. Cory Booker already has a run for the White House on his résumé, but on Tuesday night, the New Jersey Democrat entered the history books in a new way: resetting the Senate record for the longest floor speech, besting the mark set by South Carolina’s Strom Thurmond in opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1957.
Booker stood on the floor all night, ultimately holding court for 25 hours and 5 minutes, as Roll Call’s Victor Feldman reported.
Booker’s office said the senator’s TikTok livestream received more than 350 million likes (and for those a little more old school, the main office line exceeded 28,000 voicemail messages). Predictably, the Garden State senator was fundraising Tuesday night for both his own political operation and the Democratic National Committee.
The enthusiasm among Democrats for Booker’s speech preceded a pivotal Wisconsin Supreme Court election that saw Susan Crawford, who had Democratic backing, prevailing over a candidate supported by the bankroll of Elon Musk and helping liberals maintain their 4-3 majority on the bench.
And all that came ahead of President Donald Trump’s announcement of a sweeping new tariff regime that sent global financial markets reeling. Our colleague John T. Bennett has our “Liberation Day” dispatch.
All that, along with Democratic overperformances Tuesday in two special House elections in Florida, has Democrats upbeat about their chances both in the 2025 off-year gubernatorial elections as well as the 2026 midterms.
A memo from House Majority PAC, the super PAC aligned with House Democratic leadership, said extrapolating out the results from the two Florida specials would mean that “Democrats would be on track to flip over 40 seats.”
And sure, this newsletter will state some facts, including that the party in the White House usually does poorly in the midterms. But Trump and his political operation knew we were going to say that.
“We’re very unified, and rest assured, we aren’t done winning yet. That much I can tell you,” the president said in a Wednesday fundraising message. “But the disgraced ‘journalists’ in the fake news media and the so-called ‘experts’ will soon start telling you the party in power always does badly in the midterm elections.”
Starting gate
Republicans win Florida specials: Republicans Jimmy Patronis and Randy Fine were quickly sworn in to the House on Wednesday, a day after winning special elections for open seats. But their winning margins weren’t reflective of the partisan tilt of their deep-red districts. Roll Call’s Nick Eskow and Jackie Wang have more on the results and on the new congressmen.
On Wisconsin: Crawford will be Wisconsin’s next state Supreme Court justice after winning Tuesday’s technically nonpartisan election and securing its liberal wing’s 4-3 majority. Musk played a central role in the campaign, appearing in the state last weekend and spending more than $18 million through his political organizations to support Brad Schimel, the defeated conservative candidate.
Ready, set, go: The start of the second quarter brought several campaign announcements. Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow launched a Senate campaign, becoming the first major candidate of either party to do so. New Hampshire Rep. Chris Pappas entered the state’s open Senate race, with a kickoff event planned for Thursday night. In California, Xavier Becerra, the former Health and Human Services secretary and congressman, announced a gubernatorial campaign. And in Arizona, Democrat Adelita Grijalva is running for the Tucson-area seat left vacant by the death of her father, Raúl M. Grijalva, last month. On Thursday, Grijalva picked up the endorsement of former Rep. Gabby Giffords and her husband, Sen. Mark Kelly, as well as the eponymous gun safety PAC she founded.
Oh Canada! Republican Sens. Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, along with Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, crossed over Wednesday to help Democrats pass a joint resolution, 51-48, designed to terminate Trump’s emergency declaration underpinning Trump’s Canada tariffs, Roll Call’s Olivia M. Bridges reported. The House isn’t expected to take up the measure, and in any case, the president would surely veto it.
Campaign on hold: Democratic Rep. Lucy McBath has suspended her exploratory campaign for governor of Georgia to focus on her husband’s health.
A special conversation: Mary Ellen joined Roll Call Editor-in-Chief Jason Dick and politics and campaigns editor Andrew Menezes on the latest Political Theater podcast to talk about this week’s special election results and races of the nonpolitical kind.
ICYMI
Landry’s losses: Voters in Louisiana soundly rejected four constitutional amendments backed by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, including his plan to overhaul the state’s tax and budget laws. One expert told the Louisiana Illuminator that left-leaning voters motivated by anger at Trump may have played a role in the defeat of the measures.
Back for a rematch: Former Ohio state Sen. Kevin Coughlin launched a second bid for the state’s 13th District after losing to Democratic incumbent Emilia Sykes by 2 points last fall. Coughlin could benefit from new district lines next year under an expected Republican-led effort. Sykes hasn’t yet announced her reelection plans and has been mentioned as a candidate for governor.
Dem primary watch: Democrat Jake Rakov, a Southern California millennial, is seeking to challenge Rep. Brad Sherman in the Los Angeles-area 32nd District. Rakov once worked for the 15-term Democrat but says his former boss is ill-equipped for the fight against Trump.
Heating up: In Arizona, business owner Jonathan Treble entered what could be another crowded Democratic primary to unseat Republican Rep. David Schweikert in the Phoenix-area 1st District. Former TV journalist Marlene Galán-Woods, who made an unsuccessful run in 2024, is making a repeat bid, and 2024 nominee Amish Shah has filed a statement of interest. The neighboring 5th District could have a crowded primary of its own with Republican incumbent Andy Biggs running for governor. Former GOP state Rep. Travis Grantham formally announced a bid for the seat this week, while former NFL kicker Jay Feely is “seriously considering” entering the Republican primary.
Not without my president: Video game composer Marty O’Donnell, whose credits include the Halo and Destiny series, is making another run for the Republican nomination in Nevada’s 3rd District. But O’Donnell told The Nevada Independent he would drop out if he can’t secure Trump’s support to take on Democratic incumbent Susie Lee. 2024 nominee Drew Johnson, who lost to Lee by 2 points in the Las Vegas-area swing district, is also weighing a bid.
Landing spot: Trump nominated former New York Rep. Anthony D’Esposito to be the next inspector general for the Department of Labor. That could put the Republican out of the running for a rematch against Democrat Laura Gillen in the 4th District, although he would have to win Senate confirmation first.
Guv roundup: Former Georgia state Sen. Jason Carter is considering a bid for governor, the office once held by his grandfather, the late President Jimmy Carter, and one that he unsuccessfully sought in 2014. In Minnesota, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, a Trump ally and 2020 election denier, says he’s mulling a run for the GOP nomination. Democratic incumbent Tim Walz hasn’t yet said whether he’ll seek a third term. And in Ohio, term-limited Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said he expects others to join the race to succeed him, heightening speculation that his new lieutenant governor, former Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel, could enter the primary that already includes Vivek Ramaswamy and state Attorney General Dave Yost.
Nathan’s notes
Roll Call elections analyst Nathan L. Gonzales of Inside Elections writes that the aforementioned results in Florida and Wisconsin demonstrate how much the political environment has shifted, even since November, when Trump won his second term and Republicans flipped the Senate and held on to the House.
One key task that Republicans have yet to figure out: how to turn out Trump voters when the president isn’t on the ballot.
What we’re reading
Thune in the spotlight: The New Yorker explores the relationship between Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a self-described “boring Midwesterner,” and Trump.
We need to talk about Gavin: The Los Angeles Times catches up with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, whose new podcast has befuddled some of his progressive allies. Newsom says his stinging critique of fellow Democrats is in line with his long-standing independent streak. “I’m a progressive but I’m a pragmatic one,” he told the paper.
Bad blood: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel examines the escalating animosity between two members of the Wisconsin delegation, Republican Derrick Van Orden and Democrat Mark Pocan. “What began as a campaign trail spat during the 2022 midterms has evolved into a near-constant exchange of online attacks,” the newspaper reports.
He’s fixin’ to run: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton talks to The New York Times as he prepares for a Republican primary challenge to the state’s longtime senator, John Cornyn.
Former state lawmaker fined: The agency charged with enforcing California’s campaign finance laws is fining Evan Low, a former assemblymember and 2024 congressional candidate, $106,000. The penalty was handed down after the Democrat acknowledged trying to conceal payments to Alec Baldwin for appearances the actor made in 2020 at a tech event and a separate fundraiser for Low. The inquiry by the California Fair Political Practices Commission was launched after reporting from CalMatters and found that Low used his technology-focused nonprofit to pay Baldwin more than $227,000.
The count: 6.2
In percentage points, that’s how much Susan Crawford, the winning liberal candidate in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, outperformed Kamala Harris’ statewide vote share from five months ago.
En route to a comfortable 55 percent to 45 percent victory over conservative candidate Brad Schimel in the most expensive judicial race in U.S. history, Crawford bested Harris’ margins in all 72 of the Badger State’s counties. She also outpaced last year’s winning campaign of Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin in 71 of 72 counties, by a margin of 5.6 points.
Despite the very public support of Trump and Musk, who cast the stakes of the race as nothing short of critical to the future of humankind, Schimel, a Republican former state attorney general, underperformed Trump’s 2024 numbers in all 72 counties, by 4.8 points overall. He did manage to best the performance of Baldwin’s 2024 Republican opponent, Eric Hovde, in two of the 72 counties, though he still fell 3.7 points short of Hovde’s statewide vote percentage.
— By Roll Call’s Ryan Kelly
Coming up
Later this afternoon, the Senate is expected to proceed to the budget resolution adopted by the House, which means there is another vote-a-rama in the near future.
Photo finish
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