General U.S. News13h ago
With Democrats’ decisive victory in the United States’ midterm elections on Tuesday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York is on the verge of making history as the first Black speaker of the US House of Representatives. An online petition on Change.org calling on lawmakers to choose another speaker had collected more than 980,000 signatures by Saturday morning, while several newly elected progressive lawmakers have not said whether they will support him. “We believe the Speaker should represent the Democratic voters, not just the Democratic establishment,” the petition reads. “This is not a foregone conclusion,” it continues, urging others to run for the job. Jeffries went on to work as a corporate lawyer before entering politics, losing two runs for the New York State Assembly before winning a seat in 2006 and eventually being elected to Congress six years later. Two years later, during Trump’s first impeachment trial, he argued that Trump should be removed from office as one of seven House impeachment managers who presented the case to the US Senate. Rising quickly through the Democratic ranks, Jeffries became caucus chair in 2019 before making history three years later, when he was unanimously chosen to succeed former Speaker Nancy Pelosi as the party’s House leader, becoming the first Black politician to lead a party in either chamber of Congress. That approach has frustrated some Democrats, who say Jeffries has been too reluctant to take firm positions and who question whether he is prepared to confront Trump and Republicans in Congress aggressively enough. Ahead of the election, Axios reported on a plan by some incoming progressive lawmakers – informally known as “The Bloc” and including Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier of New York and Melat Kiros of Colorado – to use the upcoming speaker vote to win concessions from Jeffries on issues such as Medicare for All, cutting funding for ICE (immigration enforcement agency), and weapons shipments to Israel. But the result also makes it harder for Jeffries to argue, as he has in the past, that Republican control of Congress is hindering the Democrats’ ability to advance their agenda and hold Trump accountable. In a celebratory post after the elections congratulating the candidates it had supported, AIPAC singled out Jeffries and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer by name. However, with Trump still in the White House, a party grappling with its own divisions, and voters expecting change on everything from the cost of living to the war on Iran, the bigger test for Jeffries will come once he is on the job.
