Hakeem Jeffries poised to become speaker

WASHINGTON
The Democrats’ midterm election win puts Hakeem Jeffries in line to become the first Black speaker of the US House of Representatives, with the dual challenge of opposing President Donald Trump while bridging the gap between his party’s moderates and its more vocal progressives.
As speaker, Jeffries, representing a New York City congressional district, would preside over a majority that will be sworn in the first week of January, taking the reins from Republicans who controlled the House for the past four years.
“Today begins the great American comeback,” Jeffries proclaimed in a victory speech late on Tuesday after media outlets projected the likelihood of Democratic majorities in the House and Senate.
He attacked the Trump-led Republican agenda in Congress over the past two years, pledging to pass legislation reversing steep spending cuts — enacted into law on July 4, 2025 — to the Medicaid healthcare program for the poor and people with disabilities.
“The American people have spoken and made clear that they’ve had enough of the extremism, enough of the corruption. They want a Congress that’s going to deliver for the American people,” Jeffries said.
Jeffries has long said that, while his caucus would focus on helping the poor and middle class cope with the high cost of living, Democrats would also investigate the Trump administration’s dealings with corporate executives, including those who have donated heavily to his various campaigns and projects.
He has stopped short of saying the House, under his leadership, would attempt to impeach Trump for a third time.
Democratic Representative Robert Garcia of California, who is expected to become chair of the House Committee on Oversight, had two words of advice.
“Lawyer up,” he said in an election night statement. With votes still being counted across much of the country after Tuesday’s elections, the size of the Democratic majority in the House for the next two years was unclear.
The House speaker acts as the boss of the often boisterous 435-member chamber, deciding what legislation advances to a vote or dies on the vine.
The House speaker is second in line for the presidency, after Vice President JD Vance. Later this month, the newly elected House Democrats will gather behind closed doors to anoint their candidate to run in the January election for speaker. Nobody is seen posing a serious threat to Jeffries, according to multiple Democratic aides.
Weeks later, with the start of a new Congress, the full House will vote to select the 57th speaker since 1789, with Republicans putting up their own candidate who will be all but certain to fail.
But Jeffries still has some work to do in nailing down the support of several far-left progressives, such as fellow New Yorker and Representative-elect Darializa Avila Chevalier. In a September 30 interview with Vanity Fair, Avila Chevalier would not commit to voting for Jeffries.