ALBUQUERQUE, NM – House Democrats don’t know the way Leader Hakeem Jeffries sees it was held It’s a majority in Congress, but that’s how they ruled.
From the government shutdown to passing the annual defense authorization bill to raising the nation’s debt limit, “we are required to consistently raise this opportunity,” Trump told NBC News in an exclusive interview with NBC News. done,” he said. “Democrats have almost certainly provided the necessary support to get things done.”
Now he wants the gavel to go with the management.
Jeffries hopes to win back the House majority with a “people over politics” message and a promise to curb House GOP chaos. If she succeeds, it would mark the historic Nancy Pelosi’s speakership (as the first woman elected to the top office) with another milestone for her party: the election of the first black speaker of the House of Representatives. But to do that, Democrats would have to flip at least four House seats from red to blue while keeping some of their most vulnerable districts.
Along with other top House Democratic leaders, Katherine Clark of Massachusetts and Pete Aguilar of California, Jeffries has been logging miles from New York to California, crossing some of the country’s most tortuous battlegrounds.
That includes New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District, where incumbent Rep. Gabe Vasquez is locked in a rematch with his 2022 opponent — a Republican he won by just 1,350 votes.
Asked to speculate on whether Democrats will overturn control, Jeffries repeatedly declined to even give a vibe-check, saying only that “we’re working as hard as we can” and reiterating his belief that his party “is right from our point of view.” ideas”.
After all, the leader admitted, “these are very evenly split districts and close races that will come down to a few thousand votes here or there. That’s why it’s important for us to keep our foot on the gas pedal and make sure we do everything possible to deliver the House Democratic vision to improve life for the American people.
That mentality drives Jeffries around the country in the final weeks before Election Day, helping vulnerable “frontline” members playing defense in their districts — from Vasquez in New Mexico. Susan Wild in Pennsylvania — while also boosting members hoping to expand the map in all-important California and New York.
Polling shows that the race for control of the House of Representatives has been in line with a chamber that has (at times) been controlled by thin majorities for the past two years.
Jeffries has learned from the chaotic nature of this Congress – from a multi-day, 17-round vote to oust Kevin McCarthy, who made history with his instability, as a punishment for working with Democrats in less than a year. raise the country’s debt limit.
“Silence is a deliberate decision,” Jeffries said when asked how he steered his caucus out of turmoil. “Many times the nature of the emergencies we have to deal with cannot be controlled, but you can control how you respond.”
Preparing for 2025
If the Brooklyn lawmaker had his way, House Democrats would be working with the Kamala Harris administration in January. But it’s also possible that Jeffries will have to work with a second Trump administration as speaker or minority leader. He says House Democrats will “try to work with their traditional Republican colleagues on any issue, whenever and wherever possible,” but he sees Trump differently.
“It is clear to us that Donald Trump intends to force the extreme policies clearly expressed in the 2025 project down the throats of the American people. Therefore, this election is incredibly important,” he said.
Congress must approve the election results before it can begin governing. The process, a constitutionally mandated, secular process until January 6, 2021, has become a national turning point — putting the speaker’s role and party affiliation in the spotlight.
“House Democrats are committed to confirming the election based on the results of the American people’s choice as the 47th president of the United States,” Jeffries said. But it remains to be seen whether “extreme MAGA Republicans will be willing to endorse the election if Kamala Harris succeeds. And this is a very disturbing development.”
It was asked NBC’s “Meet the Press” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., responded this weekend with his oft-repeated expectation that if Trump were to lose, he would confirm the election: “We’re going to do our job in Congress. There will be a free, fair and legal election. Confirmed … Yes , if the election is free and fair and we pray and hope to make sure it is true.
What would the Democrats do?
As Speaker, Jeffries would be responsible for setting the House agenda for the first time in his career. Her predecessor, Pelosi, led House Democrats for 20 years as both minority leader and speaker. He continues to call him “the greatest public speaker of all time,” including in this interview.
He hopes to become an ally of President Harris if he wins the next Congress. The two Democrats got to know each other by collaborating on bipartisan criminal justice reform legislation during Harris’ brief tenure in the Senate. The law of the first step.
“From the moment he first arrived, it was clear that he was emerging as a national leader,” Jeffries recalled.
Jeffries listed the Democrats’ priorities as “reducing spending, increasing the opportunity economy, being there for working families” and expanding the Child Tax Credit. He declined to elaborate on which bill, usually reserved for majority party priority and known as HR 1, would be introduced first in the new Congress. But he suggested that overhauling abortion rights protections would be high on the party’s to-do list. .
“We will determine the order of the legislation that will move on the floor of the House of Representatives, but it is fair to say that the top priority, closely held by the House Democratic Caucus from across the country, is to make sure that we accept as we do” Roe v Wade protections and to restore reproductive freedom throughout the country. The Health Protection Act was done earlier.