As you well know, the Democratic Party just had a good trouncing – at least in the House of Representatives. If anything, that should teach those on the far-left fringes of the party that their ideals might not line up all that much with the rest of the nation.
However, if they didn’t learn from their recent defeat, they might soon get another opportunity. This time, it just might come from their very own party.
If you haven’t heard the good news, outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has recently announced that she will be resigning. No, she’s not giving up her seat in the House. However, she is retiring herself from the party’s leadership. This means that not only will she not be House Speaker (thanks to a new GOP majority), but she will also step down as House Democratic Leader and all that that includes.
As I said, it’s rather good news. But not just because we will finally be rid of her for the most part.
In addition to losing Pelosi’s ridiculous influence over the party, there is a very good chance the party may take a serious swing to the center of the aisle – or at least be more centrist than it is now.
According to Fox News, this call comes as New York Representative Hakeem Jeffries has announced his bid to take Pelosi’s place of leadership.
Jeffries made his intention to become the new House Democratic Leader official on Friday when he wrote a letter to his fellow party members seeking their support and to “unify” their caucus. And there is a good chance he will win the race. In fact, so far, no one has yet to challenge him.
However, there are likely more than a few who are a bit nervous about such a man becoming their leader.
First and foremost on that list is fellow New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
While AOC and Jeffries might share their love for New York and NYC, the two are on quite opposite ends of the Democratic spectrum. In fact, Jeffries has been a known target for AOC ever since she arrived in the House.
You see, she’s a very visible member of a progressive group known as the Justice Democrats. If you haven’t heard of the group, their main goal is to weed out those they see as not being leftist enough, meaning centrist incumbent Democrats. Clearly, the hope is that the more they oust, the more left-leaning the party as a whole will become.
But Jeffries, a proud and known centrist, isn’t making that very easy on her and her ilk. And it will only get more difficult should he become the party’s senior leader.
There are also rumblings that a donation to AOC was once used in a whisper campaign against leftist darling Representative Barbara Lee giving Jeffries the upper hand in a 2018 race for House Democratic Caucus Chair. And so, it is said that things are “personal” for AOC regarding Jeffries. Personal enough that AOC threatened to challenge Jeffries at the time.
Of course, she didn’t. And now he’s risen to become quite possibly the party’s new leader.
What this means for AOC and her Justice Democrats is that they could be not so secure in their seats going forward.
Jeffries has already proved himself to be quite a formidable adversary to the Justice Dems in the years since he became House Democratic Caucus chair. It’s been reported on a number of occasions that he used campaign money to fight against the group during primary challenges to incumbents like himself. And he’s succeeded.
With an even more powerful seat, he could do even more damage to the group, should he wish to.
For now, Jeffries states that things between himself and AOC are fine and that he will be good to her and her fellow group members. In an appearance on CNN, he said he has “great respect” for AOC and all other members of the House.
But those could be words spoken in the moment, and he’ll go back on at some point in the future, particularly if AOC pulls one of her all-too-common stunts of accusing him or someone close to him of having the hots for her or something. I wonder how good to her he’ll be after that.
