House Democrats "inundated" with calls telling them not to elect Jeffries speaker
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Summary
Democratic House members and members-elect are being bombarded with phone calls and emails urging them not to elect Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) as speaker, more than a dozen lawmakers and aides tell Axios. Why it matters: The calls point to a fundamental disconnect between House Democrats — most of whom are likely to vote for Jeffries — and at least a portion of their grassroots base. An incoming House Democrat told Axios they are "getting inundated" and have received "about 150" calls since the election urging them not to vote for Jeffries. A senior House Democrat said they received "over 500" calls in the last two days, telling Axios they also got asked about it in-person at a Chamber of Commerce meeting in their district. "I think our numbers are higher" than 500, said another House Democrat. "It's our No. 1 issue, and it's not close." State of play: Jeffries is in pole position to become speaker of the House after Democrats' landslide victory Tuesday, which is set to give them a massive majority of more than 250 seats. He has enjoyed the unanimous support of his caucus since becoming Democratic leader in 2022 and has never had a single House Democrat defect from him in a speaker vote. But the last speaker ballot was in January 2025, right before Democrats' grassroots base began railing against party leadership for what they perceived as insufficient resistance to the Trump administration. "Democrats in both chambers can't go back to business-as-usual politics. People want leadership that's ready to join the rest of us in this new era of politics," Ezra Levin, co-executive director of the progressive group Indivisible, said in a statement to Axios on Friday. A Democratic chief of staff who said their office got "about 300" calls told Axios: "Lots of people are saying make Jamie Raskin speaker." Raskin (D-Md.) has often been floated as a more progressive alternative to Jeffries, whose associations with pro-Israel groups and corporate PACs have long been a sore spot for the left. The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, Raskin became a superstar among the party's grassroots after serving on the Jan. 6 committee. Raskin has expressed no interest in mounting a bid. A spokesperson for his office declined to comment. The intrigue: A third House Democrat, who said they've "gotten between 300-400" calls, told Axios that actor Mark Ruffalo's post on X calling for "a new speaker" has been driving much of the outreach. The post links to a Change.org petition that says Jeffries "is simply not the right choice." The petition had nearly 900,000 signatures as of Friday. The webpage includes a disclosure that the person who started the petition "receives compensation" as part of the " Change Ambassadors " program, which has raised eyebrows on Capitol Hill. Reality check: Jeffries remains the overwhelming favorite to become speaker, House Democrats say. Nobody has offered even a hint of a whisper that they would be willing to run against him. A fourth House Democrat, who said their office has gotten around 50 calls urging them not to vote for Jeffries, told Axios the odds of anyone else becoming speaker are "none." A fifth — a senior progressive who said they, too, have gotten a lot of calls — told Axios there is a "0.0%" chance of Jeffries not securing the gavel. Democrats' leadership elections are scheduled for Nov. 18-19, and a floor vote for speaker will occur when the new Congress convenes on Jan. 3. Between the lines: The volume of calls also varies, some members said, with progressives tending to receive more than moderates. "That's ridiculous. I haven't gotten one," Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) told Axios, adding, "Jeffries absolutely will be speaker." Said Rep. Sam Liccardo (D-Calif.): "I'll be supporting Hakeem Jeffries, and anybody talking about a challenger is just selling tickets to a circus with no tent." Yes, but: Jeffries faces persistent skepticism and hesitance from incoming members — and not just from the progressive "Bloc." Axios interviewed nearly a half-dozen incoming House Democrats in deeply red seats Thursday who declined to state a firm position one way or another on voting for him. Don Leonard, an Ohio Democrat who won a seat President Trump carried by 10 percentage points, told a local outlet that he will be "shopping for a new leader" if Jeffries doesn't commit to changing his pro-Israel position. The bottom line: There was an expectation that the roughly dozen members of the "Bloc" would use a small majority to extract concessions from Jeffries. With a massive majority of dozens of seats, however, he has significantly more room to maneuver. His allies are confident they'll get enough Democrats to a "yes" to get him across the finish line — even if he doesn't get the unanimous vote he has enjoyed in the past.
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