Hakeem Jeffries Announces Run for Speaker, Promising 'Dramatic Change' as Democrats Take the House
The House Democratic leader made it official in a letter to his colleagues: Hakeem Jeffries is running to be the 57th Speaker of the House, on a platform of affordability, accountability and American values. Democrats vote on their leaders November 18.
Hakeem Jeffries is running for Speaker of the House. The Democratic leader announced his candidacy in a Dear Colleague letter to the members elected to the 120th Congress, asking for their support to become the 57th Speaker when the new Congress convenes in January. 'I write to humbly request your support in connection with my candidacy to serve as the next Speaker of the House of Representatives,' Jeffries wrote. 'We must now deliver the dramatic change the American people are demanding in the majority.'
Jeffries, who has led House Democrats in the minority for two terms, would succeed Republican Mike Johnson - whose own hold on the Republican leadership ended this week, when he told his staff he is done as leader after Democrats blew past every pre-election projection to build their largest House majority since 2008. If elected, Jeffries would be the first Black Speaker in American history. House Democrats hold their leadership elections on November 18, and no rival candidacy has been announced.
The letter is also the new majority's first governing document. Jeffries organized his pitch around three words - affordability, accountability and American values - and set a first-100-days list: reverse the Medicaid cuts in the Republican budget law, restore SNAP funding, pass a three-year extension of the Affordable Care Act tax credits, eradicate the Trump tariffs, and stop what he called the reckless war of choice in Iran. On accountability, he promised the House would stop functioning, in his words, like a wholly owned subsidiary of the Trump administration, and backed banning members of Congress from trading stocks.
The Speaker's election itself comes on the House floor in January, when Jeffries will need a majority of the full House, not just his caucus - with a majority this size, that arithmetic is comfortable, and the November 18 caucus vote is the real contest. For Houston's nine-member House delegation, all now in the majority party for the first time in a generation, a Jeffries speakership means committee gavels and a direct line to the floor schedule - the delegation's senior members spent the week in Washington for the transition meetings the letter kicks off.
