Hakeem Jeffries isn’t president yet, but the Democrat may be the most powerful person in Congress

WASHINGTON (AP) — Without wielding the gavel or holding a formal constitutionally mandated position, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries may very well be the most powerful person in Congress today.

Leader of the Democratic House minority, Jeffries provided the votes needed to keep the government running despite opposition from House Republicans to prevent a federal government shutdown.

Jeffries who made sure Democrats did the counting to send $95 billion in foreign aid to Ukraine and other U.S. allies.

And Jeffries who, with the full force of House Democratic leadership behind him, decided this week that his party would help Speaker Mike Johnson stay in office rather than be ousted by far-right Republicans led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

“How powerful is Jeffries right now? ” said Jeffery Jenkins, a public policy professor at the University of Southern California who has written extensively on Congress. “This is an important power.”

The decision by Jeffries and the House Democratic leadership to lend their votes to prevent Johnson’s ouster represents a powerful inflection point in what has been a long political season of dysfunction, gridlock and of chaos in Congress.

By declaring that enough is enough, that it is time to “turn the page” on the Republican uproar, the Democratic leader is exercising his power in a very public and timely manner, with the aim of showing legislators and all those who watch with dismay the broken situation. Congress, that there may be another approach to government.

“Since the very beginning of this Congress, Republicans in the House of Representatives have imposed chaos, dysfunction and extremism on the American people,” Jeffries said Wednesday on Capitol Hill.

Jeffries said that with House Republicans “unwilling or unable” to control “extremist MAGA Republicans,” it will take a bipartisan coalition and partnership to achieve that goal. We need more common sense in Washington, DC, and less chaos. »

In the House, the minority leader is often seen as the honorary speaker, the highest-ranking official of the party no longer in power, biding his time in hopes of regaining the majority — and with it, the gavel of the president – ​​in the next elections. Elected by their own party, this is a job without much formal basis.

But in Jeffries’ case, the position of minority leader came with enormous power, filling the political void left by the current president, Johnson, who commands a fragile, thin Republican majority and is constantly threatened by far-right provocateurs that the GOP speaker cannot entirely control.

“He acts like a shadow speaker on every important vote,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

As Johnson continues to marshal the powerful tools of the president’s office, a task spelled out in the Constitution and second in succession to the presidency, the Republican-led House has weathered a tumultuous session of infighting and upheaval that has left their objectives and priorities remained blocked.

In a fit of discontent just months after securing their majority, far-right Republicans last fall ousted the previous speaker, now-retired Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., in an act of revolt of unprecedented party. He declined to specifically ask Democrats for help.

Johnson faces the same threat of dismissal, but Jeffries sees in Johnson a more honest broker and a potential partner whom he is willing to support at least temporarily – even if Johnson, too, has not openly asked help from across the aisle. A vote on Greene’s motion to vacate the speaker’s position is expected next week.

As Johnson draws closer to Donald Trump, receiving support from the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, it is Jeffries who holds what Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the speaker emeritus, called the “currency of the kingdom” — votes — which are necessary. in the House to get any program across the finish line.

Pelosi said in an interview that Jeffries, as minority leader, had “always had leverage” because of the House’s slim majority.

“But it’s about him showing that he’s willing to use it,” she said.

Jeffries has been “masterful,” she said, in securing Democratic priorities, including humanitarian aid as part of the foreign aid package that Republicans initially opposed.

But Pelosi disagrees with the idea that Democrats’ support for Johnson at this point creates some sort of new coalition era in American politics.

“Our House works because we are willing to be bipartisan to make it work,” she said. “He’s not necessarily saving President Johnson – he’s defending the dignity of the institution.”

Jeffries is a quiet, confident operator, positioning himself and his party as purveyors of democratic norms amid the Republican thunderclap of Trump-era disruption.

The first Black American to lead a political party in Congress, Jeffries is already a historic figure, whose stature will only grow if he is elected as the first to wield the gavel as Speaker of the House.

Born in Brooklyn, Jeffries, 53, rose steadily through the ranks of New York state politics and then onto the national stage, a charismatic next-generation leader, first elected to Congress in 2012 in a district, parts of which were formerly represented by another historic. lawmaker Shirley Chisolm, the first black woman elected to Congress.

A former corporate lawyer, Jeffries is also known for his insightful speaking, drawing on his upbringing in the historically Black Cornerstone Baptist Church, a spiritual home for many grandchildren and great-grandchildren of African-American slaves. Americans who fled the American South for Brooklyn. But he also infuses his speeches and remarks with a modern sensitivity and cadence, connecting generations.

Last year, when Republicans failed to muster votes on a procedural step in a budget and debt deal, it was Jeffries who stood intently at his desk in the House and raised his voting card to signal to Democrats that it was time to step up their efforts. and deliver.

Repeatedly, Jeffries ensured that Democratic votes prevented a shutdown of the federal government. And last month, when Johnson faced a far-right Republican revolt over aid to Ukraine, Jeffries intervened again, ensuring that Democrats had more votes than Republicans to pass the bill. project.

Ahead of the November elections, both parties are fighting for political survival to control a closely divided House, and Jeffries would almost certainly face his own challenges leading Democrats if they achieve the majority, divided on many issues keys.

But both Jeffries and Johnson set out on a sprint across the country, raising money and enthusiasm for their own party’s candidates before November — the Republican president trying to hold on to his job, the Democratic leader waiting to do so. take.