Hakeem Jeffries poised to become first Black speaker of the US House after Democratic midterm win

Hakeem Jeffries is positioned to become the first Black speaker of the US House of Representatives after Democrats captured the chamber in Tuesday's midterm elections, a result that hands him the twin challenge of opposing President Donald Trump while bridging the divide between his party's moderates and its more vocal progressives.

Jeffries, who represents a New York City congressional district, would preside over a majority that will be sworn in during the first week of January, taking control from Republicans who have led the House for the past four years. "Today begins the great American comeback," he declared in a victory speech late Tuesday, after media outlets projected likely Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate.

In his speech, Jeffries attacked the Republican agenda in Congress over the past two years and promised legislation reversing steep spending cuts to Medicaid, the healthcare program for the poor and people with disabilities, that were enacted into law on July 4, 2025. "The American people have spoken and made clear that they've had enough of the extremism, enough of the corruption. They want a Congress that's going to deliver for the American people," he said.

Jeffries has long said his caucus will focus on helping poor and middle class Americans cope with the high cost of living, while also investigating the Trump administration's dealings with corporate executives, including those who donated heavily to the president's campaigns and projects. He has stopped short of saying the House under his leadership would try to impeach Trump for a third time. Democratic Representative Robert Garcia of California, who is expected to chair the House Committee on Oversight, offered two words of advice in an election night statement: "Lawyer up."

With votes still being counted across much of the country, the size of the Democratic majority for the next two years remained unclear. The speaker serves as the boss of the often boisterous 435-member chamber, deciding which legislation advances to a vote or dies on the vine, and is second in line for the presidency after Vice President JD Vance.

Later this month, newly elected House Democrats will meet behind closed doors to anoint their candidate for the January speaker election, and multiple Democratic aides say nobody is seen as a serious threat to Jeffries. Weeks later, at the start of the new Congress, the full House will vote to select the 57th speaker since 1789, with Republicans fielding a candidate who is all but certain to fail.

Even so, Jeffries has work to do to lock down several far-left progressives, including fellow New Yorker and Representative-elect Darializa Avila Chevalier. In a September 30 interview with Vanity Fair, she declined to commit to voting for him and instead listed policies she said the next speaker must support: voting rights reforms, public housing investments, blocking offensive weapons to Israel, and universal healthcare. Pro-Israel groups are among Jeffries' biggest campaign contributors, and he has been cool toward "Medicare for All" proposals that many moderates fear would be too costly. "The question is what he has to give them to get them on board," said Michele Swers, a Georgetown University professor of American government, while noting that tacking too far left could provoke a revolt among moderates.

Jeffries, 56, is known as a consensus-builder within his caucus, a contrast to the top-down style of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, though he also knows how to throw punches to rally the troops. "In the majority, one of the first things we're going to do is run Pete Hegseth out of town," he said at a rally three days before the midterms. His constant refrain has been that Democrats will attack the "affordability crisis," insisting that "America is too expensive."

A senior House Democratic aide said Jeffries could open with bills likely to unite the party: restoring the expanded child tax credit that Trump and congressional Republicans let expire, a housing tax credit to make home-buying more affordable, ending the war in Iran, bringing back clean energy subsidies, and renewing some "Obamacare" healthcare subsidies. That is low-hanging fruit, some of which Trump could veto, and the tougher test will be reaching across the aisle to raise the debt limit and avoid a government default, and to approve federal spending and avert a shutdown. Jeffries is also expected to spearhead efforts to protect Social Security, undo $900 billion in Republican Medicaid cuts, and revamp immigration laws.

Kate deGruyter, a spokeswoman at the moderate Democratic consultancy Third Way, said he should resist progressive calls to impeach the president, saying, "I don't think having a huge impeachment fight over the president is going to be helpful." David Miller, a professor of government at American University, said newly elected progressives are "likely to come to Washington expecting to be able to change the universe starting on day one," and that Jeffries' challenge will be tempering those expectations given that Democrats do not control the White House.