House Democrats "inundated" with anti-Jeffries calls
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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries attends a post-election press conference at DCCC headquarters in Washington on Nov. 4. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
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.
