3/5

Congressmen Jeffries is sitting pretty. After narrowly defeating Barbra Lee for Caucus Chair, he is now the #4 Democrat in Congress. With the top 3 Dems all in their 80s, Jeffries (age 50) is poised to be the next Speaker of the House in the near future.

Jeffries is a tough nut to crack ideologically. On the plus side, he is a member of the Progressive Caucus, signed onto Medicare for All, and gets a progressive vote score is in the high 80s. He has even stuck his neck out a few times, voting to cut defense spending by 10% and refusing to back Pelosi's Patriot Act reauthorization. On the other hand, Jeffries has taken a lot of money from corporate interests and has a troubling history of supporting charter schools.

If this was the whole story, then we call this another example of a machine-style Democrat who made a necessary transition to the left in order to placate an emboldened progressive base. But, despite Jeffries' voting record, he has this troubling tendency of bashing any outside challenge to the party establishment. Jeffries is relentless on twitter when it comes to gloating over incumbent primary victories, and dismissive when challengers win. After Jamaal Bowman beat a high-ranking incumbent, Jeffries chalked it up to demographic change rather than an ideological inditement on Democratic leadership.

The New York electorate has been showing a rebellious streak of late when it comes to its treatment of incumbents, and clearly, Congressman Jeffries is worried about getting the Crowley treatment. Jefferies is in better touch with his Brooklyn-based district, and in 2020 the left took a pass on even putting up token opposition to him. However, in an ominous sign, Jefferies's close ally, and successor to his former Assembly seat, was ousted by a DSA-backed insurgent.