A new Axios article details something that I’ve been thinking about for some time now: what a crazy excellent job Hakeem Jeffries has been doing as the House minority leader. In fact, Axios points out how Jeffries has emerged as Congress’ Shadow Speaker.
Jeffries has been excellent at his job from Day 1, and this all culminated in a very visible way with the House passage of the $95 billion foreign aid bill over the weekend. Axios notes that “Democrats got everything they wanted” in the bill, but that their victory wasn’t a sure thing. House Dems credit Jeffries’ leadership for making it happen.
The Axios article includes praise from a lot of House Dems, who explain what makes Jeffries such a strong leader of their caucus.
First, Jeffries is a skilled strategist. He’s demonstrated this throughout his tenure, and it became obvious with the foreign aid bill.
- Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), a master legislative tactician, heaped praise on her successor: "He is fabulous. We're so proud of him."
- One senior House Democrat told Axios: "It easily could have fallen apart ... He played the cards the way you'd want to play them."
- "I would not want to play blackjack against him," the lawmaker added.
Jeffries’ House colleagues point out that it was his decision to take the nearly unprecedented step of crossing the aisle in the Rule Committee to save the foreign aid bill, and it was his decision for all Democrats to wait until it was clear that House Speaker Mike Johnson did not have the votes on his own before saving the package on the floor.
- "We wouldn't be voting on this right now if it weren't for Hakeem ... He's the one who created the system that Johnson could follow and get this done," said a House Democrat.
Second, Jeffries is a skilled uniter. Unlike House Republicans, House Democrats continue to stay fully united behind Jeffries.
What to watch: Many Democrats also told Axios they don't anticipate Jeffries facing the type of revolts from his left flank that Johnson has seen from his right on the motion to vacate and procedural votes.
- Part of that is his reputation as a coalition builder: "He knows how to engage, uplift and balance all members of his party," said Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), a member of the progressive "Squad."
- "Anybody that wants a phone call or a meeting, we've had it," said one Democrat.
- The lawmaker predicted the party will change a rule allowing any member to force a vote on ousting the speaker, but said such a vote "would never happen in our caucus even if that rule existed ... he works very closely with [his left flank]."
Third, Jeffries consistently displays a deftness and finesse as a House leader that makes him particularly well-suited to the role.
What they're saying: House Democrats told Axios the foreign aid fight revealed a deftness in Jeffries – both in public and in closed-door negotiations – that makes him well suited for the speakership.
- Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) told Axios: "Hakeem has been very graceful. He's not purposefully thrown Johnson under the bus ... He's not been triumphant at all, he realizes how bad that would be for Mike Johnson."
I think we sometimes just take for granted the Democrats’ tremendous leadership in the House, so I wanted to take some time to really applaud the leadership of Hakeem Jeffries. It gives me a lot of hope for what he will be able to do when he becomes the actual Speaker of the House. I’ll end with this:
Johnson "should just pack up and resign and hand the gavel over to Leader Jeffries," said Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), a leading Progressive Caucus member.