Rep. Hakeem Jeffries was reelected as House Democratic leader on Tuesday after his fellow lawmakers mostly held their own amid President-elect Trump’s big win for Republicans.
The Brooklyn lawmaker will try to position his party to retake the chamber in the midterms and end unified Republican government after House Democrats prevented the GOP from expanding its narrow majority.
Jeffries, who would be in line to become the Speaker of the House if Democrats win next time, was picked during an closed-doors vote of the House Democrats at the Capitol.
“We will never give up the fight for the people,” Jeffries tweeted after the vote.
Jeffries was hailed by colleagues including Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-Michigan), who compared him to the Biblical figure Joshua who led the Jewish people after the death of Moses.
“It’s easy to be a leader in good times,” Scholten said, according to Axios. “It takes an extraordinary leader to lead in tough times.”
Republican Mike Johnson is expected to retain his position as Speaker with Republicans continuing to hold the majority in the new year.
The partisan jostling comes as the GOP is on track to hold at least a 220-213 majority, with two seats in California still up for grabs, more or less unchanged from the current tally.
House Democrats impressively picked up three seats in New York, rolling back a GOP red wave from the 2022 midterms, and at least two on the West Coast. But Democrats lost scattered seats elsewhere, notably two working-class districts in northeast Pennsylvania.
Political analysts on both sides of the aisle credit House Democrats with bucking the political winds that swept Trump back into the White House with a nationwide swing of about 5% in the popular vote from his 2020 loss to President Biden.
Democrats lost four Senate seats, flipping that chamber to a 53-47 Republican majority.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-New York) is expected to remain as Democratic leader in the minority, extending the remarkable partnership between two men who live about 2 miles apart in Brooklyn.
On the GOP side, Sen. John Thune (R-South Dakota) replaces outgoing Sen. Mitch McConnell as majority leader.
The first tests of the new political reality will come as voters go to the polls in special elections that will be held to replace a handful of GOP lawmakers who have been tapped for Trump’s incoming cabinet, including Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-New York) who represents a solidly red upstate seat and has been nominated to be U.N. ambassador.
It remains to be seen if the dynamic between the two parties in the House will shift dramatically now that Republicans holds a trifecta of power.
House Republicans are bitterly divided with right-wing factions often seeking to block must-pass spending bills by denying majority support to Johnson.
That often led Jeffries to step in and negotiate deals to deliver the Democratic votes needed to avert government shutdowns and other legislative gridlock.
But Democrats may not follow that strategy with Trump and the GOP in control.
Jeffries, who represents parts of Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant, is the first Black person to hold the post of leader in either major party.
His top lieutenants, Whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts and Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar of California also won reelection. All three took power after Speaker Emerita Rep. Nancy Pelosi and her leadership team stepped down in 2022.