Democrats’ midterm election win has put Hakeem Jeffries in line to become the first Black Speaker of the US House of Representatives, with the dual challenge of opposing President Donald Trump while bridging the gap between the party’s moderates and its more vocal progressives, Reuters reports.
Jeffries, who represents a New York City congressional district, would preside over a majority that will be sworn in during the first week of January, taking over from Republicans who controlled the House for the past four years.
“Today begins the great American comeback,” Jeffries said in a victory speech late on Tuesday, after media outlets projected the likelihood of Democratic majorities in the House and Senate.
He attacked the Trump-led Republican agenda in Congress over the past two years, pledging to pass legislation reversing steep cuts to Medicaid, the healthcare programme for the poor and people with disabilities, which were enacted into law on July 4, 2025.
“The American people have spoken and made clear that they’ve had enough of the extremism, enough of the corruption. They want a Congress that’s going to deliver for the American people,” Jeffries said.
Jeffries has long said his caucus would focus on helping the poor and middle class cope with the high cost of living, while also investigating the Trump administration’s dealings with corporate executives, including those who donated heavily to Trump’s campaigns and projects. He has stopped short of saying the House under his leadership would attempt to impeach Trump for a third time.
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👉 JOIN GISTSMATE WHATSAPP CHANNELDemocratic Representative Robert Garcia of California, who is expected to chair the House Committee on Oversight, had two words of advice in an election night statement. “Lawyer up,” he said.
With votes still being counted across much of the country, the size of the Democratic majority for the next two years remains unclear.
The Speaker, who is second in line to the presidency after Vice President JD Vance, controls the 435-member chamber and decides which legislation advances to a vote.
Later this month, newly elected House Democrats will meet behind closed doors to pick their candidate for the January election for Speaker. According to multiple Democratic aides, nobody is seen as a serious threat to Jeffries.
Weeks later, at the start of the new Congress, the full House will vote to select the 57th Speaker since 1789. Republicans will field their own candidate, who is all but certain to lose.
However, Jeffries still has work to do in securing the support of several far-left progressives, such as fellow New Yorker and Representative-elect Darializa Avila Chevalier.
In a September 30 interview with Vanity Fair, Avila Chevalier declined to commit to voting for Jeffries. She instead listed policies she said the next Speaker must support: voting rights reforms, public housing investments, blocking offensive weapons to Israel, and universal healthcare.
However, pro-Israel groups are among Jeffries’ biggest campaign contributors, and he has been cool toward proposals for a “Medicare for All” programme, which many moderate Democrats fear would be too costly.
“The question is what he has to give them to get them on board,” said Michele Swers, a professor of American government at Georgetown University.
Tacking too far to the left, however, could trigger a revolt among Democratic moderates.
Jeffries, 56, is known as a consensus-builder within his caucus, in contrast to the top-down style of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi. But he also knows how to throw punches, particularly to rally supporters.
“In the majority, one of the first things we’re going to do is run Pete Hegseth out of town,” Jeffries said at a political rally three days before Tuesday’s midterms.
His mantra, however, has been that Democrats will tackle the “affordability crisis,” which voters repeatedly cite as their top concern. “America is too expensive” has been his refrain in public appearances.
A senior House Democratic aide said he could lead off with a series of bills likely to unite Democrats: an expanded child tax credit that Trump and congressional Republicans let expire, a housing tax credit to make home-buying more affordable, ending the war in Iran, restoring clean energy subsidies, and renewing some “Obamacare” healthcare subsidies.
Some of those measures Trump could veto. Jeffries’ tougher task will be reaching across the aisle to pass critical legislation, including raising the debt limit to avoid a default and approving federal spending to avoid a government shutdown.
He will also spearhead other Democratic priorities, such as protecting Social Security, undoing $900 billion in Republican cuts to Medicaid, and revamping immigration laws.
Kate deGruyter, a spokeswoman at Third Way, a moderate Democratic consultancy, said he should resist calls from progressives to impeach the president.
“I don’t think having a huge impeachment fight over the president is going to be helpful,” she said.
Newly elected progressives are “likely to come to Washington expecting to be able to change the universe starting on day one,” said David Miller, a professor of government at American University. Jeffries’ challenge, he said, will be to temper those expectations “given that Democrats don’t control the White House.”
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