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Why Brooklynites Jeffries and Schumer are still favorites to lead Democrats in Congress
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Nov 12, 2026 at 4:18 p.m. ET
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By
Brigid Bergin
Published Nov 12, 2026 at 4:18 p.m. ET
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This column originally appeared in The Politics Brief, our weekly newsletter on the people, power and policies that shape New Yorkers' lives.
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Outside the Beltway, there’s been an outpouring of pushback against electing House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries as speaker and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer as majority leader. But political observers say it’s what happens inside the Beltway that counts, and that the two Brooklyn-based politicians are unlikely to be knocked off their leadership perches.
One big reason: no one has formally stepped up to challenge either lawmaker.
In the House, Jeffries' election as speaker would mark historic firsts. He is poised to become the first Black speaker of the House and the first speaker from New York City. While a handful of newly elected Democrats have not committed to supporting him — including incoming local Reps. Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier — no other lawmaker has emerged to challenge him.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who sits decidedly to Jeffries’s ideological left but has said she will support him, went on Instagram on Monday to explain how the internal leadership election works. The real vote takes place in a private Democratic caucus meeting through a secret ballot, she explained. If no one is challenging Jeffries, then members have no one else to vote for.
“ When you vote, it’s not this person's name, ‘yes or no’. That's not how this ballot looks,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “ The question needs to be, ‘Who do you actually want for the speakership? Who is running?’”
The behind-closed-doors process stands in contrast to how recent Republican House speaker elections have played out, spilling into acrimonious debate on the floor fueled by ideological divisions within the party and their razor-thin majority. In January 2023, it took 15 ballots to elect Rep. Kevin McCarthy speaker of the House, and then four ballots to replace him in October of that year with Rep. Mike Johnson.
Democrats are expected to hold nearly 260 seats when the next session begins in January. Jeffries only needs 218 to be elected Speaker. That means he has three dozen seats worth of negotiating room — a much more comfortable margin than House Republicans had in recent years.
“I think anything over 230 makes Hakeem’s life a lot easier A) in terms of getting elected, and B) in terms of passing bills without having to cater to the left wing of the caucus as much,” said Adam Carlson, head of the progressive polling firm Zenith Research.
In the Senate, Schumer’s prospects are more complicated.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the de facto leader of the left, said he would not be supporting Schumer and that “the time is now for change.” He held a press briefing Tuesday with Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, who said she was undecided.
There are rumblings that the 75-year-old veteran lawmaker may face a challenge from Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who told reporters this week that he was in “listening mode” and had not ruled out running against Schumer.
“ If Van Hollen really throws his hat into the ring and goes full bore, I think he's the only one who can theoretically put together a coalition that could work, because he's an insider,” Carlson said.
New York’s junior Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who served as chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said she was not "privy" to any conversations with Van Hollen and was standing firmly by Schumer.
“ He's done a great job marshaling our caucus these past two years to be laser-focused on cost, corruption and chaos,” Gillibrand said. She credited him with supporting candidates across the country who flipped at least seven Senate seats from red to blue, raising over $500 million for candidates.
“ I think people have a lot of gratitude towards Senator Schumer,” Gillibrand said, “and I think he'll win any Majority Leader race he has.”
Schumer would need a majority of the Democrats 54 to 56-member caucus to elect him majority leader. That’s roughly 29 votes.
Jeffries voiced strong support for his fellow Brooklynite.
“ Chuck Schumer was the quarterback of a team effort led by Senate Democrats and incredible candidates who ran all across the country,” said Jeffries, citing wins in Texas, Maine, Michigan, Iowa, Kansas, South Carolina, Georgia and potentially in Alaska and Mississippi.
“I think the results of that election, the outcome, the decisive victory speaks for itself,” said Jeffries.
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This week in New York politics
- New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill selected Shirley Emehelu, a former prosecutor currently serving as New Jersey’s acting secretary of state, as her new lieutenant governor.
- With Democrats poised to take control of the House and Senate in January, some New Yorkers are hoping for a healthcare policy reset — even reversing the funding cuts to Medicaid and other safety net programs.
- After the results of the midterm elections, New York will be sending 20 Democrats and six Republicans to Washington in January as the state’s delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives.
- A federal judge has ruled that the Mamdani administration has to give immigration officials the names and birthdays of certain people living in a large, city-run homeless shelter in the Bronx.
- Voters in Elizabeth, New Jersey approved a measure that restores a $20 cap on future rent increases for rent-controlled units, at least for a year.
- New York Republicans are demanding a reckoning in their own party after a blue wave swept away many of their candidates on Election Day. Here’s what they’re saying.
- A New York appeals court struck down Nassau County's ban on transgender girls and women participating in certain sports competitions at county-owned facilities.
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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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