Hakeem Jeffries, Pressing to Lead Democrats, Marks a Generational Shift
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The congressman, who has served in the House for a decade, would be a far different leader from Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whom he is running to succeed.
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By Nicholas Fandos and Annie Karni
Standing on the Senate floor during President Donald J. Trumpâs 2020 impeachment trial, Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York, laid out the case for convicting and removing Mr. Trump, whose lawyer had just asked: âWhy are we here?â
âWe are here, sir, because President Trump corruptly abused his power and then he tried to cover it up,â Mr. Jeffries said in the staccato cadence of a prosecutor. âAnd we are here, sir, to follow the facts, follow the law, be guided by the Constitution, and present the truth to the American people.â
Mr. Jeffries, 52, concluded his grave presentation with a lyric by the rapper and fellow Brooklynite Biggie Smalls: âAnd if you donât know, now you know.â
Such a reference may have been lost on Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 82, who has ruled the fractious House Democratic Caucus for the past two decades and on Thursday announced her plans to step down from leadership. Two years later, the moment underscores the generational and stylistic change that is now underway in top echelons of the partyâs ranks in the House.
âWho else as an impeachment manager could quote Biggie Smalls?â said Representative Ritchie Torres, Democrat of New York.
Mr. Jeffries on Friday formally announced his run for Democratic leader, a bid that, if successful, would make him the first Black man to hold the top party leadership role in either chamber of Congress. For now, he is unopposed for the post, and widely regarded by his colleagues as all but certain to secure it.
In many ways, he and Ms. Pelosi couldnât be more different.
She is the daughter of a congressman and former mayor, who was born into a Baltimore political dynasty and later became a wealthy San Francisco homemaker, embodying the progressive social politics of her adopted hometown. In Congress, she has been a master legislator who has led with an iron grip on her caucus and helped enact landmark Democratic policy initiatives for two decades â usually while wearing stilettos.
Mr. Jeffries is the son of a working-class social worker and a substance abuse counselor, who became a high-powered litigator. He still lives in the heart of Black Brooklyn and often pairs his suits with sneakers. Outside of bipartisan federal sentencing reform, his own legislative record is relatively thin, pointing to a sharp learning curve ahead.
What the two lawmakers share is a pragmatic streak, and a keen sense of where political compromise is available.
âHe is really deliberative; heâs not the type to quickly react to a question or a concern,â said Representative Grace Meng, a Queens Democrat who has served with Mr. Jeffries in Albany and Washington. âHe will listen, absorb it and usually come back with a solution that most people would not have thought of.â
The Aftermath of the 2022 Midterm Elections
A moment of reflection. In the aftermath of the midterms, Democrats and Republicans face key questions  about the future of their parties. With the House  and Senate  now decided, hereâs where things stand:
Bidenâs tough choice. President Biden, who had the best midterms of any president in 20 years  as Democrats maintained a narrow hold on the Senate , feels buoyant after the results. But as he nears his 80th birthday, he confronts a decision  on whether to run again.
Is Trumpâs grip loosening? Ignoring Republicansâ concerns  that he was to blame for the partyâs weak midterms showing, Donald J. Trump announced his third bid for the presidency . But some of his staunchest allies are already inching away from him .
G.O.P leaders face dissent. After a poor midterms performance, Representative Kevin McCarthy  and Senator Mitch McConnell  faced threats to their power  from an emboldened right flank. Will the divisions in the partyâs ranks make the G.O.P.-controlled House an unmanageable mess ?
A new era for House Democrats. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the first woman to serve in the post and the face of House Democrats for two decades, will not pursue a leadership  post in the next Congress. A trio of new leaders  is poised to take over their caucusâs top ranks.
Divided government. What does a Republican-controlled House and a Democratic-run Senate mean for the next two years? Most likely a return to the gridlock and brinkmanship  that have defined a divided federal government in recent years.
Mr. Jeffries is known among his colleagues in Congress as a calm, self-disciplined operator who usually speaks with no notes. He sends cheesecakes from Juniorâs, the Brooklyn staple, each holiday season and hosts an annual âHip-Hop on the Hillâ event. A defender of bedrock liberal priorities like abortion rights and Medicare for All, he has also been at the forefront of efforts to fight racial injustice, including through overhauling the nationâs criminal justice system and slowing gentrification.
But he also has an intensely pragmatic streak and is uncomfortable with the partyâs activist left wing, whose approach he has argued is unrealistic and self-defeating. Alongside Representative Josh Gottheimer, a moderate Democrat from New Jersey, he started Team Blue, a fund-raising initiative that has backed Democrats fielding primary challenges from the left.
Many progressives, in turn, regard him with intense distrust and even hostility, arguing that he is too solicitous of corporate interests and too cautious on addressing climate change. Should he become the leader, their skepticism may be one of Mr. Jeffriesâs first and thorniest challenges.
âHe needs the leftâs support if heâs going to do his job and hold the Democratic caucus together in this really, really narrow split Congress,â said Liat Olenick, an activist who works with Brooklynâs Indivisible chapter and Climate Families NYC. âAnd to do that, he needs to stop antagonizing progressive leaders and take a more collaborative approach.â
As Democrats rushed to endorse his candidacy this week even before Mr. Jeffriesâs announcement, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, a progressive, remained noncommittal, saying she was still âprocessingâ Ms. Pelosiâs decision to step aside and that there was âhealing that needs to be done in our caucus.â
If he prevails, Mr. Jeffries would present a far different model of Democratic political power than the nation is used to seeing. Born in Brooklynâs Crown Heights neighborhood, Mr. Jeffries represents some of the most storied urban Black communities in the country, including some once represented by the trailblazing congresswoman Shirley Chisholm.
He came to power two decades ago as a political insurgent with a sharp tongue, eschewing the Democratic Party power structure. Other than a brief flirtation with running for mayor, his preference has been to exercise power discreetly.
âHeâs what we call a code switcher,â said Ruben Diaz Jr., a Bronx Democrat and one of the congressmanâs closest allies. âHe can hang out with hip-hop artists, he can be in the hood in Brooklyn or the Bronx, but he can also be inside the Oval Office and negotiate with POTUS.â
Born into a family descended from enslaved people and Cape Verdeans, Mr. Jeffries came of age in the 1980s and 1990s in a central Brooklyn that was a hotbed of Black activism and remarkable cultural output, but also crime and unrest as New York City struggled through the crack cocaine epidemic.
Mr. Jeffries attended New York City public schools and the State University at Binghamton, where he was the president of the historically Black Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. He earned a law degree at N.Y.U., and was one of the few young Black lawyers in the litigation departments at the prestigious firm Paul, Weiss and then at CBS. In the latter role, he worked on a suit stemming from the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show, when Justin Timberlake briefly exposed Janet Jacksonâs breast on live television.
Starting in 2000, around age 30, he ran for office three times before he won a seat in the State Assembly. He got to Congress in 2012 by defeating Charles Barron, a former Black Panther and City Council member, in a primary.
âHe was definitely of the generation of mostly men who were outsiders of the Democratic Party and worked to kick in the door,â said Lupe Todd-Medina, a longtime political adviser. âOnce they got in, that was when you saw the shift of Black political power go from Harlem to Central Brooklyn.â
In office, Mr. Jeffries quickly made criminal justice reform his top legislative priority, and the issue would become a through line in an otherwise modest legislative portfolio.
In Albany, he teamed up with Eric Adams, the future mayor of New York City, to ban the Police Department from maintaining a database of men its officers had stopped and frisked. In Washington, he helped write what became the First Step Act, a bipartisan federal sentencing overhaul signed by Mr. Trump, and wrote a bill passed by the House that would ban the use of chokeholds by police.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, who has known Mr. Jeffries for three decades, recalled working with him in 1999 on the case of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed 23-year-old immigrant from West Africa who was killed in the Bronx by four police officers who fired 41 shots because they thought he was reaching for a gun.
âWhen we were fighting police brutality, he would say, âIâll help, but Iâm not the guy that will go to jail, Iâm the guy who will help get the legislation through.ââ
Mr. Sharpton added: âHe is an activist in his way. But all activists donât do the same thing. He is committed to the long-term goal of what weâre trying to do.â
During the Trump administration, he worked closely with Jared Kushner, the former presidentâs son-in-law, to pass the First Step Act, visiting the White House for meetings even while serving as one of the Democratsâ most vocal critics of Mr. Trump.
Mr. Jeffriesâs wife, Kennisandra Arciniegas-Jeffries, works for the benefits fund of the Service Employees International Union Local 1199, one of the cityâs most powerful unions. They have two sons in college and live in Prospect Heights, a neighborhood that has rapidly gentrified in recent years, less than a mile away from Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader.
Mr. Jeffries has worked closely with Ms. Pelosi as part of her leadership team and remained deferential to her as she weighed whether to step down from leadership or seek another term leading her caucus. But the two have had a tense relationship at times, with Ms. Pelosi always aware that Mr. Jeffriesâs political ambitions would only be realized with the end of her own.
As for how he would fare as the person in charge of keeping the Democratic caucus together, even his closest allies in Congress said itâs too soon to tell.
âItâs very difficult to know that until you go through that,â said Mr. Gottheimer, âuntil youâre the maestro yourself.â
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Updates. The G.O.P.âs House Win. Full House Results. Uncalled House Races. Full Senate Results. Advertisement. Supported by. The congressman, who has served in the House for a decade, would be a far different leader from Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whom he is running to succeed. Send any friend a story As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share. Give this article Give this article Give this article. Send any friend a story. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share. By Nicholas Fandos and Annie Karni. Standing on the Senate floor during President Donald J. Trumpâs 2020 impeachment trial, Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York, laid out the case for convicting and removing Mr. Trump, whose lawyer had just asked: âWhy are we here?â âWe are here, sir, because President Trump corruptly abused his power and then he tried to cover it up,â Mr. Jeffries said in the staccato cadence of a prosecutor. âAnd we are here, sir, to follow the facts, follow the law, be guided by the Constitution, and present the truth to the American people.â Mr. Jeffries, 52, concluded his grave presentation with a lyric by the rapper and fellow Brooklynite Biggie Smalls: âAnd if you donât know, now you know.â Such a reference may have been lost on Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 82, who has ruled the fractious House Democratic Caucus for the past two decades and on Thursday announced her plans to step down from leadership. Two years later, the moment underscores the generational and stylistic change that is now underway in top echelons of the partyâs ranks in the House. âWho else as an impeachment manager could quote Biggie Smalls?â said Representative Ritchie Torres, Democrat of New York. Mr. Jeffries on Friday formally announced his run for Democratic leader, a bid that, if successful, would make him the first Black man to hold the top party leadership role in either chamber of Congress. For now, he is unopposed for the post, and widely regarded by his colleagues as all but certain to secure it. In many ways, he and Ms. Pelosi couldnât be more different. She is the daughter of a congressman and former mayor, who was born into a Baltimore political dynasty and later became a wealthy San Francisco homemaker, embodying the progressive social politics of her adopted hometown. In Congress, she has been a master legislator who has led with an iron grip on her caucus and helped enact landmark Democratic policy initiatives for two decades â usually while wearing stilettos. Mr. Jeffries is the son of a working-class social worker and a substance abuse counselor, who became a high-powered litigator. He still lives in the heart of Black Brooklyn and often pairs his suits with sneakers. Outside of bipartisan federal sentencing reform, his own legislative record is relatively thin, pointing to a sharp learning curve ahead. What the two lawmakers share is a pragmatic streak, and a keen sense of where political compromise is available. âHe is really deliberative; heâs not the type to quickly react to a question or a concern,â said Representative Grace Meng, a Queens Democrat who has served with Mr. Jeffries in Albany and Washington. âHe will listen, absorb it and usually come back with a solution that most people would not have thought of.â The Aftermath of the 2022 Midterm Elections. A moment of reflection. In the aftermath of the midterms, Democrats and Republicans face key questions  about the future of their parties. With the House  and Senate  now decided, hereâs where things stand: Bidenâs tough choice. President Biden, who had the best midterms of any president in 20 years  as Democrats maintained a narrow hold on the Senate , feels buoyant after the results. But as he nears his 80th birthday, he confronts a decision  on whether to run again. Is Trumpâs grip loosening? Ignoring Republicansâ concerns  that he was to blame for the partyâs weak midterms showing, Donald J. Trump announced his third bid for the presidency . But some of his staunchest allies are already inching away from him . G.O.P leaders face dissent. After a poor midterms performance, Representative Kevin McCarthy  and Senator Mitch McConnell  faced threats to their power  from an emboldened right flank. Will the divisions in the partyâs ranks make the G.O.P.-controlled House an unmanageable mess ? A new era for House Democrats. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the first woman to serve in the post and the face of House Democrats for two decades, will not pursue a leadership  post in the next Congress. A trio of new leaders  is poised to take over their caucusâs top ranks. Divided government. What does a Republican-controlled House and a Democratic-run Senate mean for the next two years? Most likely a return to the gridlock and brinkmanship  that have defined a divided federal government in recent years. Mr. Jeffries is known among his colleagues in Congress as a calm, self-disciplined operator who usually speaks with no notes. He sends cheesecakes from Juniorâs, the Brooklyn staple, each holiday season and hosts an annual âHip-Hop on the Hillâ event. A defender of bedrock liberal priorities like abortion rights and Medicare for All, he has also been at the forefront of efforts to fight racial injustice, including through overhauling the nationâs criminal justice system and slowing gentrification. But he also has an intensely pragmatic streak and is uncomfortable with the partyâs activist left wing, whose approach he has argued is unrealistic and self-defeating. Alongside Representative Josh Gottheimer, a moderate Democrat from New Jersey, he started Team Blue, a fund-raising initiative that has backed Democrats fielding primary challenges from the left. Many progressives, in turn, regard him with intense distrust and even hostility, arguing that he is too solicitous of corporate interests and too cautious on addressing climate change. Should he become the leader, their skepticism may be one of Mr. Jeffriesâs first and thorniest challenges. âHe needs the leftâs support if heâs going to do his job and hold the Democratic caucus together in this really, really narrow split Congress,â said Liat Olenick, an activist who works with Brooklynâs Indivisible chapter and Climate Families NYC. âAnd to do that, he needs to stop antagonizing progressive leaders and take a more collaborative approach.â As Democrats rushed to endorse his candidacy this week even before Mr. Jeffriesâs announcement, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, a progressive, remained noncommittal, saying she was still âprocessingâ Ms. Pelosiâs decision to step aside and that there was âhealing that needs to be done in our caucus.â If he prevails, Mr. Jeffries would present a far different model of Democratic political power than the nation is used to seeing. Born in Brooklynâs Crown Heights neighborhood, Mr. Jeffries represents some of the most storied urban Black communities in the country, including some once represented by the trailblazing congresswoman Shirley Chisholm. He came to power two decades ago as a political insurgent with a sharp tongue, eschewing the Democratic Party power structure. Other than a brief flirtation with running for mayor, his preference has been to exercise power discreetly. âHeâs what we call a code switcher,â said Ruben Diaz Jr., a Bronx Democrat and one of the congressmanâs closest allies. âHe can hang out with hip-hop artists, he can be in the hood in Brooklyn or the Bronx, but he can also be inside the Oval Office and negotiate with POTUS.â Born into a family descended from enslaved people and Cape Verdeans, Mr. Jeffries came of age in the 1980s and 1990s in a central Brooklyn that was a hotbed of Black activism and remarkable cultural output, but also crime and unrest as New York City struggled through the crack cocaine epidemic. Mr. Jeffries attended New York City public schools and the State University at Binghamton, where he was the president of the historically Black Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. He earned a law degree at N.Y.U., and was one of the few young Black lawyers in the litigation departments at the prestigious firm Paul, Weiss and then at CBS. In the latter role, he worked on a suit stemming from the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show, when Justin Timberlake briefly exposed Janet Jacksonâs breast on live television. Starting in 2000, around age 30, he ran for office three times before he won a seat in the State Assembly. He got to Congress in 2012 by defeating Charles Barron, a former Black Panther and City Council member, in a primary. âHe was definitely of the generation of mostly men who were outsiders of the Democratic Party and worked to kick in the door,â said Lupe Todd-Medina, a longtime political adviser. âOnce they got in, that was when you saw the shift of Black political power go from Harlem to Central Brooklyn.â In office, Mr. Jeffries quickly made criminal justice reform his top legislative priority, and the issue would become a through line in an otherwise modest legislative portfolio. In Albany, he teamed up with Eric Adams, the future mayor of New York City, to ban the Police Department from maintaining a database of men its officers had stopped and frisked. In Washington, he helped write what became the First Step Act, a bipartisan federal sentencing overhaul signed by Mr. Trump, and wrote a bill passed by the House that would ban the use of chokeholds by police. The Rev. Al Sharpton, who has known Mr. Jeffries for three decades, recalled working with him in 1999 on the case of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed 23-year-old immigrant from West Africa who was killed in the Bronx by four police officers who fired 41 shots because they thought he was reaching for a gun. âWhen we were fighting police brutality, he would say, âIâll help, but Iâm not the guy that will go to jail, Iâm the guy who will help get the legislation through.ââ Mr. Sharpton added: âHe is an activist in his way. But all activists donât do the same thing. He is committed to the long-term goal of what weâre trying to do.â During the Trump administration, he worked closely with Jared Kushner, the former presidentâs son-in-law, to pass the First Step Act, visiting the White House for meetings even while serving as one of the Democratsâ most vocal critics of Mr. Trump. Mr. Jeffriesâs wife, Kennisandra Arciniegas-Jeffries, works for the benefits fund of the Service Employees International Union Local 1199, one of the cityâs most powerful unions. They have two sons in college and live in Prospect Heights, a neighborhood that has rapidly gentrified in recent years, less than a mile away from Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader. Mr. Jeffries has worked closely with Ms. Pelosi as part of her leadership team and remained deferential to her as she weighed whether to step down from leadership or seek another term leading her caucus. But the two have had a tense relationship at times, with Ms. Pelosi always aware that Mr. Jeffriesâs political ambitions would only be realized with the end of her own. As for how he would fare as the person in charge of keeping the Democratic caucus together, even his closest allies in Congress said itâs too soon to tell. âItâs very difficult to know that until you go through that,â said Mr. Gottheimer, âuntil youâre the maestro yourself.â Advertisement.