"Rome is burning": Incoming House Democrats prove unusually willing to defy leaders
House Democrats' incoming freshman class is barely a week old and already threatening to defy party leaders in ways most of their incumbent colleagues wouldn't dare.
Key points
- Why it matters: It's a dynamic House leaders may have to learn to live with as they integrate a massive group of new members who were swept into office on a wave of populist, anti-establishment anger.
- Things get more spotty when gauging Jeffries' support among incoming freshmen, some of whom have openly declined to commit to supporting his leadership.
- "There is one candidate in this race, Hakeem Jeffries, and I think that everyone is far more concerned about what that leadership means, what is it promising," Ocasio-Cortez told reporters on Tuesday.
I think we need to see some prioritization of some legislation, particularly around health care, foreign policy and immigration." Some incoming and sitting House Democrats have been flooded with calls and emails urging them not to elect Jeffries speaker, Axios previously reported.
Additional details
- That includes members of the informal progressive "Bloc," including Reps.-elect Darializa Avila Chevalier (D-N.Y.), Melat Kiros (D-Colo.), Claire Valdez (D-N.Y.), Adam Hamawy (D-N.J.) and Chris Rabb (D-Pa.).
- "It's much more about, like, what can you do for Nevada?" "I'd like to see who's on the ballot," said Rep.-elect Jake Johnson (D-Minn.), a member of both the New Dems and the centrist Blue Dogs.
- "Until I've had an opportunity to chat, until I've had an opportunity to see who's out there, I'm not making any decisions." Yes, but: Plenty of freshmen are supporting Jeffries as well.
- Said Rep.-elect Teresa Benitez-Thompson (D-Nev.), a member of the center-left New Democrat Coalition: "I just won a district that went for Trump two years ago by 14%.
- "We need a 28th Amendment in the year 2028 or before to shut down Elon Musk and corporate money and Israeli lobby money, for that matter," Leonard said.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
Advertisement
Every article behind this summary — 1 article from 1 outlet
Get stories like this in your inbox.
Subscribe — it's freeOne free email at 6am — your topics, deduplicated, five minutes. No account, no paywall.