Hakeem Jeffries ascended to the top spot among Democrats without a challenge. That doesn’t mean every Democrat is exactly on board.
, in 2022, only two House Democrats running for re-election received more contributions from the finance and real estate industry than Jeffries., Jeffries and his team feuded with the House’s most visible progressive, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez , who is one of the few members yet to tweet or issue a statement praising Jeffries’ election to the leadership post.
The fact that progressives are welcoming Jeffries’ rise—and that he faced not even a perfunctory challenge from the left for the leadership gig—speaks to what is considered Jeffries’ greatest skill: relationship building. What makes progressives more optimistic is that his long-running engagement with them means he will be attentive to their concerns. One progressive aide said that Jeffries “comes to all the Progressive Caucus meetings, he’s vocal, he’s smart, he responds quickly to all the whips.”For many on the left, there’s real value in having Jeffries—comparatively young at 52 years old and the first Black person to lead a party in Congress—at the helm.
Ironically, that perception may run deepest in Jeffries’ hometown of New York City—and his home turf of Brooklyn, home to perhaps the nation’s most concentrated membership of the Democratic Socialists of America. The tension at the heart of Jeffries’ relationship with a key bloc of his party could shape how the newly minted leader approaches his task as the first new House Democratic leader in two decades.As Pelosi was before him, Jeffries will be a top focus of attention and scrutiny for progressives both inside the Capitol and beyond it.
But his work also left behind a trail of progressive hopefuls, organizers and activists who question his tactics. “I want to see Rep. Jeffries build a coalition between progressives, moderates, independents even, across the country, and make sure that the resources that we’re using in these races are going toward the right things, like fighting Republicans, and allow the Democratic primaries to let the chips fall where they may.” Collins ultimately lost the primary by 6.6 points.
“I would have liked to see progressives be a lot more vocal on his shortcomings. Even if they did end up voting for him,” she said. “They could say something along the lines of, ‘Well, I voted for him, but you know, purely because I actually don’t like him. I just simply do not have the numbers to get somebody else in there.’”
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