Hakeem Jeffries has spent nearly three years leading the House Democratic Caucus from the same office where Nancy Pelosi held the job for two decades. The comparison has followed him ever since. A procedural vote this week gave Democrats a fresh reason to make it.
Maine Representative Jared Golden and Washington Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, both Democrats, crossed the aisle to help Speaker Mike Johnson advance his agenda after a conservative rebellion, catching their own leadership off guard. Five conservative Republicans had planned to vote against the rule—in protest of an earlier spending fight—which would have sunk it without Democratic help. Pelosi, who handpicked Jeffries as her successor in 2023, then drew a sharp distinction between how he has led the caucus and how she did.
It was a simple premise that helped make her one of the most effective leaders in Congress: members stay in line. But the Golden and Gluesenkamp Perez votes on Tuesday gave new ammunition to some of the loudest critics of Jeffries’ leadership, inherited from Pelosi in 2023 with her explicit backing. They have argued that he does not have the same control over his caucus that Pelosi did.
Progressive commentator Emma Vigeland saw the incident as its own kind of failure. Jeffries is bad at the basics of his job, and passing the buck onto Katherine Clark is poor leadership.” Jeffries’ tenure continued a leadership line that has passed through just three Democrats in three decades: Dick Gephardt, Pelosi and now Jeffries. Pelosi has often praised him publicly.
In his 2023 TIME 100 profile, she wrote that Democrats “will make progress” under his leadership and that he was “already doing a terrific job.” Two years into his tenure, criticism that he lacks Pelosi’s discipline and appetite for a fight has piled up. It grew louder after several Senate Democrats joined Republicans to end this year’s 43-day government shutdown without a deal on healthcare subsidies. Pelosi herself privately urged him this spring to “use your power” and take a harder line against President Donald Trump, according to CNN, as Democrats were already growing frustrated with his cautious approach.
The end of summer has been a challenging time for Jeffries. Last week, Jeffries took fire from progressives after Florida Representative Jared Moskowitz was named ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa last week, at a time when Democratic voters have grown increasingly critical of Israel’s conduct in Gaza. A week earlier, Jeffries had also faced criticism after a private meeting with Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and White House envoy, became public.
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