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The narrow margin of Republicans’ majority, and McCarthy’s tenuous hold on his caucus, is likely to give Democrats some leverage in negotiations, particularly when it comes to must-pass legislation. Vowing to “get stuff done”, Jeffries said his caucus would look for opportunities to work with Republicans but would “push back against extremism whenever necessary”. Jeffries also showcased his Brooklyn roots during the trial when responding to Trump's lawyer who asked the House impeachment managers why they were even there pushing their case. He quoted Biggie Smalls, the rapper from his neighborhood known as "the Notorious B.I.G.," as he finished his closing statement about the president's abuse of power saying, "and if you don't know, now you know." He acknowledged the caucus is "a big family, and an enthusiastic family and sometimes a noisy family." In a veiled reference to the House GOP conference and its allegiance to former President Donald Trump, Jeffries added "I'd much rather be a coalition than a cult." The House Democratic Caucus has elected Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., to lead their caucus.
Caucus memberships
On Tuesday, House Democrats granted Pelosi the honorific title of “speaker emerita”. Clyburn, now the highest-ranking Black member of Congress, intends to remain as assistant leader to help with the transition. That election, and votes for other leadership posts, will take place on Thursday. Speaking the night before the leadership elections, Jeffries told reporters that after Democrats won back the majority in 2018 he, Clark and Aguilar talked about joining the leadership table then and using the period to demonstrate they were up to the task to eventually move up the leadership ladder.
Black Americans in Congress
One Democratic leadership aide offered some explanation to this change in their posture, which had previously been leadership asking members to keep their powder dry and not commit publicly to helping Johnson out if a motion to vacate were filed. “He has shown us that he will not stand up for secure elections, he will not stand up for democracy. WASHINGTON — House Democratic leadership said in a joint statement Tuesday that they would vote to help save Speaker Mike Johnson if far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., moves to oust him.
House Minority Leader Weekly Briefing January 11, 2024 - C-SPAN
House Minority Leader Weekly Briefing January 11, 2024.
Posted: Thu, 11 Jan 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]
‘How the hell does that even happen?’ McCarthy exits Congress amid confusion over who can run to replace him
Some progressives view Jeffries skeptically as a business-friendly centrist but such concerns were not raised on Wednesday. The vote was a jovial affair, celebrated with “handshakes, high fives and hugs”, Aguilar said. Crow said that episode shows that Jeffries "knows where he's going, but he also knows where he's from. And I think that's important as a person and as important as a leader to never forget your background, never forget who you are."
Transcript: House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries on "Face the Nation," March 10, 2024 - CBS News
Transcript: House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries on "Face the Nation," March 10, 2024.
Posted: Sun, 10 Mar 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]
The 30-year saga began with Gingrich of Georgia, who was the first member of his party to gain "the big gavel" since the early 1950s and the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower. Gingrich had been a backbench rabble-rouser since coming to the House in 1978 and built up a cadre of supporters until he won the party's No. 2 power position as minority whip in 1989. He soon eclipsed the party's leader, Robert Michel, who was nearing retirement. Johnson is the sixth Republican elevated to the speakership since 1994, the year the party won its first House majority and elected a speaker of its own for the first time in 40 years. The hard truth is that the five who preceded Johnson (McCarthy, Paul Ryan, John Boehner, Dennis Hastert and Newt Gingrich) all saw their time in the office end in relative degrees of defeat or frustration. And to find a Republican speaker who left voluntarily in a moment of victory, moving on to another office, you have to go back to the mid-1920s.
Though he is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Jeffries separated himself from the “hard-left” faction of his party in an interview with the Atlantic last year. House Democrats tapped Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday to lead them in the next Congress. Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, also from New York, will lead the Democratic Party in their respective chambers over the next two years as Biden continues to mull over whether he will seek reelection in 2024.
"We are a coalition of people with different life experiences, ideologies and backgrounds. But at the end of the day, we're always committed to finding the highest common denominator in order to get big things done. For everyday Americans. I'm confident that we can continue to do it," he said. Speaking after the vote, Jeffries said his mandate is to "advance the ball for everyday Americans and get stuff done." As the senior Black Democrat in Congress, his approval of Joe Biden’s presidential bid was widely held to have propelled the former vice-president to victory in the presidential primary in 2020. Pelosi, from California, was the first woman to be speaker and filled the role from 2007 to 2011 and since 2019. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) acknowledged that Jeffries has big shoes to fill, noting Pelosi’s outsized role in candidate recruitment, fundraising and helping the party.
"Moving forward, it's my hope that House Democrats can find common ground with Republicans to get things done that would make life better for everyday Americans whenever possible. But we're also prepared to oppose their extremism when we must." Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called Jeffries' election a "turning point in the history of the United States Congress." Jeffries rose to national notice when he was elected a decade ago, in part thanks to being called, by sources including the Washington Post, “Brooklyn’s Barack Obama”. Retiring Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said he has known Jeffries since the New Yorker’s first day in Congress.
Who is the new US Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries?
Indeed, as CNN reports, a faction of GOP senators who oppose impeachment is now suggesting that McConnell cannot remain minority leader if he votes to convict. Always a prodigious fundraiser, McCarthy rose quickly through the ranks of the House GOP after winning election in 2006. He finally achieved his longtime goal in 2023, after a historic 15-ballot fight. In early October, eight rebel Republicans joined with Democrats to oust him from the speaker’s chair.
The main function of the majority and minority whips is to gather votes of their respective parties on major issues. In a display of unity after midterm elections in which they lost the House but had a stronger than expected showing, Democrats skipped a vote and by acclamation elected Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York to be minority leader, making him the first Black person to claim the top spot. Representative Katherine Clark of Massachusetts was elected as whip, the lead vote counter for House Democrats, and Representative Pete Aguilar of California as the chairman of the party caucus, in charge of messaging. The majority party members and the minority party members meet separately to select their leaders. Third parties rarely have had enough members to elect their own leadership, and independents will generally join one of the larger party organizations to receive committee assignments. A party caucus or conference is the name given to a meeting of or organization of all party members in the House.
Yet some Democrats called the uncontested election a missed opportunity to discuss how their party was shifting and how it should move forward. In 2012, Jeffries was elected to New York’s diverse 8th Congressional District. A member of the House Judiciary Committee and House Budget Committee, Jeffries was elected chairman of the House Democratic Caucus in November 2018.
For months, Greene has railed against Johnson, threatening to force a vote to oust him if he put Ukraine aid on the House floor. Johnson did just that, shepherding a package through the House that included Ukraine aid, as well as funds for Israel and a bill to provide a pathway to ban TikTok in the U.S. It became law last week after the Senate approved it and President Joe Biden signed it into law.
The Minority Whip is a member of the minority party who assists the minority leader in coordinating the party caucus in its responses to legislation and other matters. They are reckoned as the second most powerful member of their party, behind the minority leader. Minority leaders may engage in numerous activities to publicize their party's priorities and to criticize the opposition's. The minority party offers strong opposition to majority party initiatives but does not counter with policy alternatives of their own. In the instance when the Presidency and both Houses of Congress are controlled by one party, the Speaker normally assumes a lower profile and defers to the President. For that situation the House Minority Leader can play the role of a de facto "leader of the opposition", often more so than the Senate Minority Leader, due to the more partisan nature of the House and the greater role of leadership.
Earlier this month, the House voted to send four foreign aid bills to the Senate, even as a majority of Republican members opposed the Ukraine funding piece of the proposal. Another scholar contends that the minority leader position emerged even before 1883. "It is hard to believe that House partisans would place a man in the speakership when in the majority, and nominate him for this office when in the minority, and not look to him for legislative guidance."[28] This was not the case, according to some observers, with respect to ex-Speaker Keifer. The assistant majority leader and assistant minority leader of the House, commonly called whips, are the second-ranking members of each party's leadership.
McCarthy will become House Speaker when the new Republican-majority House convenes in January. In a statement released in February, for example, Jeffries pushed back against a report by rights group Amnesty International, which accused Israel of carrying out the crime of apartheid against Palestinians. In a letter asking his colleagues to support his bid for House Leader, Jeffries emphasised his commitment to issues like racial justice, gun violence and reproductive rights.
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