Jeffries promises a 100-day agenda focused on costs and oversight
The full House will vote for speaker Jan. 3, one of its first orders of business when the new Congress convenes. If nominated and elected as expected, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries would become the first Black lawmaker to grasp the speaker’s gavel. The position is second in line to the president and the only leadership role in Congress mandated by the U.S. Constitution. Democrats won House majority control in the midterm elections, and Jeffries would succeed Republican Speaker Mike Johnson if elected.
Parties typically choose their leaders during internal caucus elections in November; the full House chooses the speaker. Jeffries has promised a robust 100-day agenda to lower costs of living and launch oversight and investigations to hold the Trump administration accountable. The Associated Press reported that impeachment of President Donald Trump is an option.
The Associated Press said: “Promising to show voters that Democrats can govern, Jeffries and the leadership team hope to hold their new majority together and avoid the kinds of chaotic disruptions and dysfunction that often left Johnson unable to control the GOP’s razor-slim majority in the House.” Jeffries and his team also face a freshman Democratic class that includes a handful backed by the Democratic Socialists of America who are pushing the party leftward, while the New Democrat Coalition is expected to remain the House’s largest, more moderate caucus. The Associated Press reported that the new majority would quickly test Jeffries and his team with the power and responsibility that comes with running the House, as well as internal divisions over how aggressively Democrats should pursue their agenda.
Rep. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts is expected to become majority leader, and Rep. Pete Aguilar of California is expected to become majority whip. Clark and Aguilar have often moved with Jeffries as a trio. Jeffries would be the first Democratic speaker since Nancy Pelosi, the nation’s first female House speaker, and has led the party for the past four years with her support after she decided to step aside following Democrats’ election losses in 2022. The Associated Press said Democrats were “eager to confront” President Donald Trump during his final two years in office.
Colleagues have praised Jeffries’ collaborative style and listening approach. The Associated Press described his listening approach as representing a change from Pelosi’s tenure as the nation’s first female House speaker. Some critics said his deliberate pace could leave him too slow to act when voters wanted swift responses to mounting crises and concerns. The Associated Press identified soaring healthcare costs, gas and grocery prices, the war in Iran, Trump’s relationship with Putin over Ukraine and concerns about corruption as the top issues ahead.
At the Democrats’ watch party in Washington, Jeffries was greeted with cheers of “Speaker! Speaker!” He told the gathering, “This is not a partisan moment. This is a patriotic one.” He said House Democrats understood that this was a change election and that “the American people are crying out for transformational change.” “We hear you,” he said. “We’re going to work hard to deliver on the dramatic change that you deserve.”
Jeffries’s rise would mark a milestone more than 150 years in the making at the nation’s domed Capitol, which enslaved African Americans helped build. The historical line runs to the Reconstruction era after the Civil War and to Joseph Rainey, the first Black American elected to the House in 1870. Rainey never became speaker, but he was the first Black lawmaker to preside with the gavel over the House chamber. Jeffries, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, would move from that milestone to the speakership itself. The Associated Press wrote that “Jeffries would wield the gavel at a time when many of the landmark gains of the 20th century Civil Rights era are being challenged anew, often by the Trump administration.”
The Brooklyn-born 56-year-old is known to sprinkle old-school hip-hop lyrics into his freestyle remarks. The Associated Press reported that Trump has publicly and privately “taunted” Jeffries. Trump also once posted a fake social-media photo of the Democratic leader wearing a sombrero outside the White House. Jeffries is a New York University-educated lawyer.
The son of an Air Force veteran and a social worker, Jeffries told The Associated Press on the campaign trail that growing up during the crack epidemic in New York shaped his sense of purpose. His experience led to “a desire to want to improve the quality of life for hardworking people, who could have fled difficult circumstances but remained in the community, worked hard to turn things around,” he said.
A married father of two, Jeffries grew up steeped in Brooklyn’s Cornerstone Baptist Church and represents parts of the Brooklyn-area district once held by Rep. Shirley Chisholm.
Jeffries earned a bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York at Binghamton, a master’s degree in public policy from Georgetown and graduated magna cum laude from NYU School of Law. He worked as a corporate lawyer and served in the New York state assembly before being elected to Congress. He was 29 when he first ran for office and failed twice in his initial campaigns for state government. In 2012, he challenged a 30-year incumbent member of Congress, who stepped aside, and Jeffries won the seat. He has served in Congress since 2013, and The Associated Press described him as the highest-ranking Black elected official in America.