New York: Hakeem Jeffries is on track to become the first Black Speaker of the House of Representatives
New York Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, 56, who represents a New York City district, is in line to become the first Black Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, following the Democratic victory in the midterm elections on Tuesday, November 3, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
Jeffries, re-elected in New York’s 8th District — according to the AP count, with 128,197 votes against 31,969 for his Republican rival Lewis Mizrahi — proclaimed in his victory speech: “Today begins the great American comeback.” “The American people have spoken and made clear that they’ve had enough of the extremism, enough of the corruption,” he said.
As Speaker of the House, Jeffries would preside over a majority taking office in the first week of January, succeeding Republicans, who controlled the House for the past four years. The office, second in the presidential line of succession after Vice President JD Vance, decides which legislation reaches a vote.
The formal path has two steps: later this month, newly elected Democrats will meet behind closed doors to nominate their candidate, and weeks later, with the start of the new Congress, the full House will vote for the 57th Speaker since 1789. According to Democratic aides cited by Reuters, no one poses a serious threat to Jeffries.
His immediate challenge will be to build bridges between moderates and the more progressive wing of his caucus. Representative-elect Darializa Avila Chevalier, also from New York, had not committed in a September interview with Vanity Fair magazine to voting for Jeffries and laid out a list of policies that, in her view, the next Speaker must support, including voting rights reforms, public housing investment and universal health care.
On his agenda, Jeffries has promised to reverse cuts to the Medicaid health program approved in the July 4, 2025 law, and to tackle the cost-of-living crisis with measures such as an expanded child tax credit, a credit to buy a home and the renewal of subsidies under the health law known as Obamacare. He will also have to negotiate with Republicans on the debt limit and federal funding to avoid a government shutdown.
Photo: Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images
Source: Reuters and Associated Press