Arabic version: جيفريز يقترب من رئاسة تاريخية لمجلس النواب

According to Al Jazeera, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York is poised to become the first Black speaker of the US House of Representatives after Democrats’ decisive midterm election victory. The 56-year-old congressman would take on a central role in Democrats’ efforts to rein in Republican President Donald Trump during the final two years of his presidency.

Jeffries grew up in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, during the 1970s and 1980s. The son of two social workers, he became a lawyer after the 1992 Los Angeles riots, which followed the acquittal of four white police officers in the beating of Rodney King. After working as a corporate lawyer, he won a New York State Assembly seat in 2006 and was elected to Congress six years later.

In Congress, Jeffries helped broker bipartisan criminal justice reform legislation signed by Trump in 2018. He later served as one of seven House impeachment managers during Trump’s first impeachment trial. Jeffries became Democratic caucus chair in 2019 and, in 2022, was unanimously selected to succeed former Speaker Nancy Pelosi as the party’s House leader, becoming the first Black politician to lead a party in either chamber of Congress.

His expected elevation has also exposed divisions among Democrats. A Change.org petition urging lawmakers to choose another speaker had drawn more than 980,000 signatures by Saturday morning, while several newly elected progressive lawmakers had not said whether they would support him. Some progressives have sought commitments on Medicare for All, Immigration and Customs Enforcement funding, and weapons shipments to Israel. Jeffries has faced particular criticism over his support for Israel and ties to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, though he wrote in July that a “meaningful change in direction is needed” in US-Israel relations. No serious challenger had emerged, but his larger test will come after taking the job.