Rep. Hakeem Jeffries was reelected as Home Democratic chief on Tuesday after his fellow lawmakers largely held their very own amid President-elect Trump’s huge win for Republicans.
The Brooklyn lawmaker will attempt to place his occasion to retake the chamber within the midterms and finish unified Republican authorities after Home Democrats prevented the GOP from increasing its slender majority.
Jeffries, who can be in line to grow to be the Speaker of the Home if Democrats win subsequent time, was picked throughout an closed-doors vote of the Home Democrats on the Capitol.
“We will never give up the fight for the people,” Jeffries tweeted after the vote.
Jeffries was hailed by colleagues together with Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-Michigan), who in contrast him to the Biblical determine Joshua who led the Jewish folks after the dying of Moses.
“It’s easy to be a leader in good times,” Scholten stated, in accordance with Axios. “It takes an extraordinary leader to lead in tough times.”
Republican Mike Johnson is predicted to retain his place as Speaker with Republicans persevering with to carry the bulk within the new 12 months.
Home Speaker Mike Johnson of La., smiles as President-elect Donald Trump attends a gathering with Home Republicans in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. (Allison Robbert/Pool through AP)
The partisan jostling comes because the GOP is on monitor to carry at the very least a 220-213 majority, with two seats in California nonetheless up for grabs, kind of unchanged from the present tally.
Home Democrats impressively picked up three seats in New York, rolling again a GOP purple wave from the 2022 midterms, and at the very least two on the West Coast. However Democrats misplaced scattered seats elsewhere, notably two working-class districts in northeast Pennsylvania.
Political analysts on each side of the aisle credit score Home Democrats with bucking the political winds that swept Trump again into the White Home with a nationwide swing of about 5% within the fashionable vote from his 2020 loss to President Biden.
Democrats misplaced 4 Senate seats, flipping that chamber to a 53-47 Republican majority.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-New York) is predicted to stay as Democratic chief within the minority, extending the exceptional partnership between two males who stay about 2 miles aside in Brooklyn.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks with reporters on the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. (AP Photograph/J. Scott Applewhite)
On the GOP facet, Sen. John Thune (R-South Dakota) replaces outgoing Sen. Mitch McConnell as majority chief.
The primary assessments of the brand new political actuality will come as voters go to the polls in particular elections that can be held to interchange a handful of GOP lawmakers who’ve been tapped for Trump’s incoming cupboard, together with Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-New York) who represents a solidly purple upstate seat and has been nominated to be U.N. ambassador.
It stays to be seen if the dynamic between the 2 events within the Home will shift dramatically now that Republicans holds a trifecta of energy.
Home Republicans are bitterly divided with right-wing factions typically searching for to dam must-pass spending payments by denying majority assist to Johnson.
That always led Jeffries to step in and negotiate offers to ship the Democratic votes wanted to avert authorities shutdowns and different legislative gridlock.
However Democrats could not observe that technique with Trump and the GOP in management.
Jeffries, who represents elements of Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant, is the primary Black particular person to carry the publish of chief in both main occasion.
His high lieutenants, Whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts and Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar of California additionally received reelection. All three took energy after Speaker Emerita Rep. Nancy Pelosi and her management crew stepped down in 2022.
