Congress is in the midst of a history-making streak at the Capitol, just six months after lawmakers were sworn in.

Democrats have led many efforts since January to push back on President Donald Trump and the Republican trifecta in Washington and have turned to viral moments and theatrics to get attention as they are blocked out of power.

Recommended Stories

• Congress tries to ban insider trading by its members
• The winners and losers of the 'big, beautiful bill'
• 'Beautiful' bill 2.0? House holdouts hint at why they changed their votes

With little available to stop Trump’s legislative agenda, Democrats’ records are designed to draw attention to their resistance and help with fundraising efforts.

They hope to sustain the enthusiasm and viral buzz gained from beating these records heading into the November gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia and mayoral elections in New York and Detroit.

“They want to see enthusiasm, so booms in fundraising, a lot of social media impressions, and an enthusiastic base, all of that really matters heading into the fall,” Democratic strategist Jon Reinish told the Washington Examiner.

The most recent record was shattered by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) on Thursday afternoon when he beat former Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy for the longest House floor speech during his “magic minute” ahead of the final passage vote of Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.” McCarthy spoke for eight hours and 32 minutes in 2021. Jeffries surpassed that record with his closing statement, clocking in at 8 hours and 44 minutes.

“I’m going to take my time and ensure that the American people fully understand how damaging this bill will be to their quality of life,” Jeffries said early in his speech.

Jeffries took the House floor at 4:53 a.m., after House Republican leadership worked through the night to flip several holdouts during a procedural vote. He dubbed the GOP legislation the “big, ugly bill” and said he would tell stories of people who could be hurt by its passage.

“I’m going to take my sweet time,” Jeffries reiterated many times throughout his speech that lasted until 1:37 p.m. and ended with cheers from his colleagues and chants of “Hakeem.”

The speech, at times, targeted swing district Republicans by name with personal stories from their constituents on how they were concerned about losing healthcare coverage. As he was speaking, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) told her social media followers to urge their GOP representatives to vote “no.”

“HIT THE PHONES TO SAVE MEDICAID!” she blasted to her millions of followers.

Just hours before Jeffries took the floor, the House had worked for almost 24 hours straight, beginning Wednesday morning. At one point, the floor remained open for more than seven hours for a procedural vote to whip GOP holdouts and made history for the longest known House vote in the modern era.

Other lengthy votes in modern history include two roll call votes. One in 2021 lasted seven hours, and another vote in 2003 lasted almost three hours.

But these are not the only records that have been broken on Capitol Hill since the snowy Jan. 3, when the 119th Congress was sworn in, and throughout this reconciliation process.

The Senate broke the record for most votes taken on a “vote-a-rama” Tuesday morning just after 7 a.m., breaking the previous record of casting votes on 44 amendments in 2008. The marathon in the upper chamber brought more than 26 hours of debate on and off the floor.

This marked the third “vote-a-rama,” a procedure voting session during which senators can propose unlimited amendments to budget-related measures, in the Senate since January.

Just days before a “vote-a-rama,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) broke the record for longest floor speech at 25 hours and four minutes, during which he protested Trump and Elon Musk’s agenda and tried to reach those in the party who feel like Democrats are not pushing back enough.

The senator did not eat or use the bathroom for the entirety of the speech and was only relieved from speaking when other Democratic senators asked questions. He broke the record held by the late Sen. Strom Thurmond’s filibuster of the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

“Maybe my ego got caught up, that maybe, maybe, just maybe, I could break this record of the man who tried to stop the rights upon which I stand,” Booker said on the Senate floor. “I’m not here, though, because of his speech. I’m here despite his speech.”

Booker had already raised nearly $1.7 million in the first quarter, which barely includes money raised during his record-breaking floor speech. The New Jersey Democrat’s fundraising from the speech brought on an ethics complaint filed by a watchdog group, for campaign texts and emails sent related to the speech. Senate ethics rules bar senators from directly linking official action to solicitations for campaigns.

For Republicans, the record-breakers are merely delay tactics and have not done much of anything to stop passage of their agenda, including the “big, beautiful bill.”

JEFFRIES HOLDS HOUSE FLOOR IN ‘MAGIC MINUTE’ SPEECH TO DELAY PASSAGE OF ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’

After Jeffries’s speech on Thursday, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) took back hold of the House floor and dismissed the record-setting speech as theatrics.

“I come from the Show-Me State, and what we just heard can be defined in one word,” Smith said. “A bunch of hogwash is what we’ve heard for eight hours on that side of the building.”