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Brooklyn's Hakeem Jeffries is poised to lead a Democratic House. Will his party follow?
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Nov 4, 2026 at 8:21 a.m. ET
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Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Nov 4, 2026 at 8:21 a.m. ET
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Hakeem Jeffries is en route to become the first Black Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and one of the most powerful Democrats in the country.
But a scene from primary night back in Brooklyn this June illustrates the challenges he’ll face in managing a left flank that is at least partly responsible for Democrats taking back Congress this week.
Supporters of then-congressional hopeful Claire Valdez and other democratic socialist candidates were basking in a string of primary-night wins in Bushwick when Jeffries’ image appeared on the screen.
“You’re next!” the crowd chanted. The exuberant, audacious primary threat reflected the attitude of many young DSA enthusiasts who view the Democratic leader as too centrist and too supportive of Israel.
With the Associated Press projecting Democrats will now control the House and Senate, Jeffries could be joined by fellow Brooklynite and Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer in controlling both houses of Congress. Both are seen as “establishment” Democrats who have been reluctant to embrace the democratic socialist wing of the party.
Now Jeffries is poised for the first time to take the gavel as a leader of a restive party struggling to define itself as more than just an opposition party to President Donald Trump.
The fight over Democrats' future is playing out in Jeffries’ hometown and his home district. On one side are Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s progressive politics. He and his incoming allies in Congress have surged on a message of affordability, taxing the rich and support of the Palestinian cause. On the other side are politicians like Jeffries, who has deep ties to the more centrist Brooklyn political establishment and a long history of steadfast support of Israel.
“The first big question a lot of the folks are asking is what does it mean to be a Democrat today?” said Democratic strategist Basil Smikle, a professor of practice at Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies and the former executive director of the New York State Democratic Party. “ In many ways, Hakeem Jeffries as Speaker of the House could help define that term and chart a course for Democrats for the next 20 to 30 years potentially.”
While Jeffries has earned the respect of colleagues, constituents and even former adversaries, there will be real challenges within the Democratic caucus. Two newly elected members from the New York City delegation — Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier —are on record repeatedly withholding their support for his leadership unless he changes the party’s priorities.
“For me, it really comes down to, are we going to have strong leadership that is going to really push for the things that working people across this country have been demanding for ages, whether that is abolishing ICE, Medicare for All, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, making sure that we are fighting for universal childcare, investing our tax dollars in our babies here and not in bombs abroad,” Avila Chevalier said in an interview ahead of the election.
A spokesperson for Jeffries did not respond to a request for comment as the Democratic House leader stumped for Democrats in competitive contests across the country and in New York.
Rep.-elect Claire Valdez notably withheld her support for Jeffries as speaker.
WNYC
Jeffries signaled Tuesday night that he plans to build on the affordability agenda that fueled Mamdani’s campaign last year and became a standard talking point for Democrats across the country during the midterms.
“ We're gonna fight for an affordable America, we're gonna end this national nightmare, and we're gonna continue America's long, necessary, and majestic march toward a more perfect union,” Jeffries said at his own victory party.
Jeffries first ran for office in 2000 at 29 years old. He challenged 20-year incumbent Assemblymember Roger Green, whom Jeffries accused at the time of being out of touch with his constituents and “backed by the Democratic machine,” according to the New York Times.
He was then an attorney at the white-shoe law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. Jeffries lost to Green twice, in 2000 and again in 2002. He won the seat in 2006 after Green retired.
“He’s more mature now,” Green said of his one-time opponent. The 77-year-old former lawmaker lives in the congressional district and remains in contact with Jeffries. Green said Central Brooklyn contains a growing number of DSA supporters and is a prime example of the economic inequality that has become their rallying cry during recent elections.
“This is a district where you see a lot of young folks that are part of ‘the precariat,’’ Green said, describing young people fresh out of college who are failing to find entry or mid-level work in the tech industry because of the artificial intelligence boom. “Then the district still has a large concentration of people of color in areas that have been really impacted by a tradition of intergenerational social and economic inequality, particularly in the housing projects.”
The district features higher rates of unemployment, food insecurity and childhood poverty than national averages, according to the Congressional District Health Dashboard compiled by NYU Langone Health. The demographics of the district have also changed dramatically in two decades, with a steep drop in Black residents and an increase in white, Latino and Asian residents.
“I think if Hakeem seizes this moment to pull the Black body politic together and align it with our progressive allies in the white community and the Latino community to bring about a Roosevelt-type moment, then we’ll be okay,” Green said, referring to the economic policies of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal.
That won’t be any easy task and there are other elected officials within the district who don’t believe Jeffries understands the party’s current zeitgeist.
State Sen. Jabari Brisport, a DSA member whose district overlaps with Jeffries, said in his six years in office, he has never had a single conversation with the congressmember. He said he has spoken to Jeffries’ staff, but never to Jeffries personally. Brisport traced the perceived animosity to around 2018, when rumors circulated that the DSA might try to primary Jeffries.
Jeffries briefly faced the threat of a primary in the fall of 2025 when City Councilmember Chi Ossé, another DSA member, filed paperwork to run for the same congressional seat. Ossé pulled the plug on his primary challenge at the urging of Mayor Mamdani
Brisport is not optimistic about Jeffries as House speaker.
“ I would say he is wildly out of touch with the district and also the Democratic Party, at large, most glaring being his pro-Israel stance three years into the genocide,” Brisport said. He cited Jeffries lack of support for Medicare for All and the support he receives from the real estate industry and Wall Street.
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, a Jeffries supporter, said he felt emotional waking up on Election Day knowing that he was on the verge of making history.
“People try to label him as establishment, but that’s not who he is,” Richards said.
Civil rights activists nationally and within the district say they’ll defend Jeffries. At the same time, there is a growing appetite for Black leaders who reach leadership positions to do more to improve conditions for Black Americans.
“ It is also going to be up to us to make sure that he has the backup so that he can address the issues that Black New Yorkers care about, that Black Americans care about,” said L. Joy Williams, president of the NAACP New York State Conference and former president of the Brooklyn Conference. “But then also make sure we got a lighter on hand and that if we need to light a little fire under his butt, we have no hesitation with doing so.”
Some voters in Jeffries' district see new advantages to his history-making ascent. Mollie Wormser, 29, said the symbolism alone of the first Black speaker was cause for celebration, as she cast her vote for Jeffries at P.S. 256 in Bedford-Stuyvesant on Tuesday.
“ I think the first Black speaker of the House would be probably bring back some kind of the Obama-era type optimism that I think I'm hoping for,” she said.
Benjamin Davis, 70, credited Jeffries with pushing back against the Trump administration, even while he was in the minority. He also said it was good to have a moderating voice leading the party.
“ I'm a diehard Democrat,” said Davis. “But I don't think we need to go to the extreme.”
Brittany Krigstein and Elizabeth Kim contributed reporting.
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new york city
Brigid Bergin
Brigid Bergin is an award-winning senior reporter on the People and Power desk. She is fiercely committed to telling stories that help people engage and support democracy. In 2022, she hosted a live, ten-week call-in politics show ahead of the midterm elections called The People's Guide to Power. Brigid's reporting in 2017 included some of the first coverage of a political newcomer now known as AOC. In 2016, she broke the news of a voter purge in Brooklyn just days before New York’s presidential primary, triggering city, state and federal investigations. Brigid also guest hosts The Brian Lehrer Show and All Of It. She graduated from the University at Albany and the CUNY Newmark School of Journalism. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-723-4719.
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