Jeffries stands apart in Democrats' leadership backlash

• Jeffries, House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) are widely expected to be unopposed in House Democrats' leadership elections on Nov. 19 and 20.
• Still, some Democratic lawmakers say Jeffries and his leadership team will have tough questions to answer about how Democrats move forward from their electoral collapse.

What they're saying: Jeffries and his deputies have "done a great job ... and navigated the minority in one of the most difficult and ineffective congressional leaderships in history," said Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.).

• Schneider, a leader of the center-left New Democrat Coalition, added, "I don't think anyone is looking at them and saying, 'If only.'"
• Leading progressive Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) said of Jeffries: "He just has the complete respect and support of the caucus. There are no cracks here, and in fact most people think it was a heroic effort."

State of play: The House majority remains in play as of Thursday as several key House races in California, Arizona and elsewhere remain uncalled.

• Jeffries said in a statement on Thursday afternoon: "It has yet to be decided who will control the House of Representatives in the 119th Congress."
• Still, Democrats are increasingly pessimistic they will be able to flip enough of the remaining GOP-held seats to eke out a majority.

Zoom in: The fact that the House remains up for grabs at all even as President-elect Trump romped to a decisive victory over Vice President Harris is something many House Democrats are hanging their hats on.

• Incumbent House Democrats in battleground races outperformed Harris by an average of four percentage points, a Democratic strategist told Axios.
• Jeffries also managed to reverse much of the red wave that swept his home state in 2022, with Democrats defeating Reps. Marc Molinaro (R-N.Y.), Anthony D'Esposito (R-N.Y.) and Brandon Williams (R-N.Y.).
• "He supported members financially, he was a good surrogate, he let people run their races without trying to micromanage and he flipped seats in his home state," said Eric Koch, a Democratic strategist who worked on numerous battleground House races, including in New York.

Zoom out: The main targets of Democrats' post-election ire so far have been Harris President Biden, who has taken particular flak for not dropping his candidacy sooner.

• Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) – who, unlike Jeffries, has led his caucus since 2017 — has faced some criticism after losing four Senate seats to Republicans.
• And Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison plans to step down rather than seek another term, according to Reuters.

Between the lines: "If anything, he helped. He raised like a jillion dollars," a House Democrat close to Jeffries, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Axios.

• "Nobody's thinking Jeffries [is at fault]. Not one person is going to blame Hakeem Jeffries for this," the lawmaker added.
• One senior House Democrat even extended Jeffries' apparent reprieve to his hand-picked campaign chief, telling Axios, "As far as I know, no one is blaming Suzan DelBene either," though they added, "that will come."

Yes, but: While Jeffries may avoid blame for the outcome, he likely will not be able to sidestep the difficult conversation over the future of the Democratic Party.

• Said another leading House progressive: "Is our leadership capable and ready to learn from this moment and change? ... Are we going hear from our leadership that we're going to do things differently as a party?"
• The lawmaker noted that that perspective isn't exclusive to House Democratic leadership, however: "I think that this is like the DNC, the Democratic Party and folks from top to bottom."

Go deeper: Jeffries congratulates Trump: Dems don't "believe in election denial"