House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) may find himself caught in the very blue wave he hopes to ride into power this November. More and more Democratic candidates are telling Axios that they can’t promise to support his leadership.
It’s a big change from Jeffries’ once “untouchable” position in the Democratic Party just a few years ago. This could mean his path to the speakership will be harder than people thought, Axios noted.
Jeffries and his supporters say they aren’t worried at all about a mass defection. They point out that he hasn’t lost a Democratic vote in 20 speakers’ ballots, even though he is in the minority.
However, this group of new students could potentially be the first challenge to the previously unyielding support. A group of viable candidates has made it clear that voting for Jeffries as speaker is not a given if the Democrats win the House.
Axios reported last fall that more than 80 Democratic House candidates across the country were either not sure if they would support Jeffries’ leadership or were completely against it. Since then, things have only gotten worse for him.
Mai Vang, the leading progressive primary challenger to Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.), previously said she would “support the person that my future colleagues elect as our leader.”
But in an unprompted statement last week, she told Axios: “The Democratic Party and its leadership—Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries—have failed to mobilize meaningful opposition to Trump’s illegal war and their silence as AIPAC and corporations flood Congressional primaries with millions of dollars is deafening.”
“I cannot support this kind of leadership,” Vang said. “If we want to defeat Trump and rebuild trust with working Americans, we need new leadership and a new direction.”
“Most Democrats agree that he’s been failing to meet the moment,” said Adam Hamawy, a candidate in New Jersey’s 12th district, saying he is “looking for someone that’s gonna stand up to the administration.”
When asked if she would support Jeffries’ leadership, Claire Valdez, a New York State Assembly member who is running to replace retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.), said in an interview with Axios that “there would need to be some conversations.”
“I’ve never met Leader Jeffries, I’ve never had conversations with him,” said Utah state Sen. Nate Blouin, the Congressional Progressive Caucus-backed candidate for a new, safely blue district in Salt Lake City.
Blouin said he looks forward to “voting for someone who is committed to fighting for our communities, our shared priorities, making sure that we are moving in a direction that is aligned with the American people on foreign policy.”
“I think those are critical concerns,” he added.
New York Assembly member Alex Bores, a candidate to replace retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.)., said, “I’ve seen real fight coming from our caucus, and that matters.”
“There’s room to grow, but I’m encouraged,” he said, adding that Jeffries is “doing a difficult, thankless job” and that he would support his fellow New Yorker’s leadership.
Jeffries’ members credit him with navigating multiple government shutdowns and keeping his caucus largely unified.
Some candidates who are against Jeffries have suggested other options. Anabel Mendoza, a progressive candidate in Illinois’ 7th District, told Axios that she wants Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) to be in charge because she is “10 toes down on what matters.”
If the Democrats win the House and by how many seats, the results of these progressives’ primaries could decide whether Jeffries easily wins the speakership or has to go through the same 15-ballot slog as Kevin McCarthy in 2023.
How well these progressives perform in their primaries, and whether Jeffries wins the House and by how many seats, will determine whether he easily becomes Speaker or has to endure the same 15-ballot slog that Kevin McCarthy did in 2023.
Some candidates said that if Democrats don’t win the House, talks about Jeffries’ leadership will probably be completely different.
New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and socialism have taken quite a few hits in the past week. Just before New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani arrived in Washington for his first meeting with President Donald Trump, the House of Representatives passed a bipartisan resolution condemning what it called the “horrors of socialism.”
“A yes vote on this resolution should be a relatively straightforward, easy decision. It simply states that Congress denounces socialism in all its forms and opposes the implementation of socialist policies in the United States of America,” Republican Arkansas Rep. French Hill said.
The measure passed in a bipartisan vote of 285-98. Among the 86 Democrats who backed it were 14 members from New York and New Jersey, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who endorsed Mamdani only in the final moments of the mayoral race.
Several Democrats and progressives have also whined about House Democrats’ refusal to elevate Ocasio-Cortez while sticking with older Democrats who have been in Congress for decades.
Far-left commentator argued, “At this point almost nothing the Democratic Party does makes any damned sense. They are hanging onto their gerontocracy and consultant class at the expense of their most loyal voters. And let’s just be clear, they’ll be fine while our communities pay the price.”
Progressive YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen said, “Democrats refuse to learn their lesson. Refuse to take generational change seriously. Refuse to spotlight the party’s most effective communicators.”
Pod Save America‘s Dan Pfeiffer concurred, submitting, “Valuing seniority over political and messaging chops is exactly how Democrats got into this mess in the first place.”
Another left-wing podcaster, Matt Lech, responded to Pfeiffer’s tweet by declaring, “It is maliciously misleading people to say this is about ‘seniority,’ which was not determinative last time. Are we gonna grow up and confront this blatant corruption here or just shadowbox.”
Mamdani and AOC have sparked a “socialist movement” that could endanger Democrats going into the 2026 midterms.
“Two more candidates who are proud to align themselves with socialism are running for important House seats in solid blue districts in Democrat-controlled states. The secret sauce fueling this phenomenon is a widely perceived belief among the progressives who dominate the grassroots of the party that the Democratic establishment is corrupt to the core and must not just be reformed but thoroughly eradicated,”
wrote Liberty Nation’s Joe Schaeffer.
That enemy is none other than California state Senator Scott Wiener, who is one of the most extreme left-wing politicians in the Golden State. But Wiener is also thought to be connected to the party’s mainstream, which could hurt him a lot more in the Bay Area than his controversial views on how transgender youth “rights” should take precedence over parental authority or how “sex workers” should be free to roam California street corners.
Chakrabarti and Wiener are both running for the Democratic nomination for the seat that Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is leaving open. Three or four years ago, during the Biden administration’s White House heyday, the political climate may have supported Wiener. But in 2025, the winds of change are obviously flowing in Chakrabarti’s direction.
Chakrabarti helped start the Justice Democrats, a dissident progressive group that became well-known when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) became a rising star on the left in November 2018.
One of these fellow travelers is Chi Osse, a member of the New York City Council who is running against House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) in the primary.
Osse, who is 27 years old, left the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) in 2022 because of a disagreement over policy. However, he rejoined the group this past summer. Many moderate Democrats are worried about this looming fight.