( Observer Network News) As the Democratic Party lost the House of Representatives, Pelosi announced that she would "step down", and the Democratic Party in the U.S. House of Representatives ushered in the largest power reshuffle in decades.
On November 30, local time, the House of Representatives Democratic Party held an intra-party election, marking the first change of Democratic leadership in the past 20 years: 52-year-old New York State Representative Hakeem Jeffries became the leader of the House of Representatives; 58-year-old Assistant Speaker, Massachusetts Representative Katherine M. Clark became the Democratic whip of the House of Representatives; 43-year-old caucus vice chairman and California Rep. Pete Aguilar became the caucus chairman.
With an average age of 51, they will replace the three Democrats in their 80s who have occupied the top position of the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives for nearly two decades and become the top three figures.
Previously, 82-year-old Speaker Pelosi, 83-year-old House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, and 82-year-old House Democratic Whip James E. Clyburn had resigned from their leadership positions. However, unlike Pelosi and Hoyer who quit the leadership, Clyburn finally chose to run for a lower leadership position after giving up the No. 3 leadership position, but encountered some challengers, and the results will be announced on December 1.
Hakeem Jeffries (middle), Katherine Clark (right), and Pete Aguilar (left) have become the No. 1, 2, and 3 Democratic Party figures in the House of Representatives respectively, and will succeed Pelosi and others in January next year. Video screenshot
This result was expected. After Pelosi announced that she would no longer hold leadership positions, Jeffries, Clark and Aguilar said they would run for caucus leadership. Among the Democrats in the House of Representatives, they have almost no other competitors. Pelosi also expressed support for the three on November 18, saying, "This reflects the beautiful diversity of our country."
The "diversity" in Pelosi's mouth can be seen from these three people that the "identity politics" card that the Democratic Party has loved to play over the years has not changed. According to the " New York Times ", this is the first time in the history of the U.S. Congress that there are no white men among the top three leaders of the two parties:
Jeffries became the first black man among the leaders of the two parties in Congress. If Democrats take back the House in future elections, he could make history as the first black speaker.
Clark will become the second woman in history, following Pelosi, to hold one of the two top leadership positions in the House of Representatives.
Aguilar will become the second Hispanic congressman to chair a caucus.
Behind the smooth transition: years of careful planning
Next door Republicans are still clamoring for McCarthy 's position as speaker, while the Democrats have already made a smooth transition of leadership through a closed-door meeting. Politico believes that it is extremely unusual for such a large-scale leadership change to occur with complete unity. However, the report also noted that behind this performance of "unity", the Democratic Party has been secretly planning for many years. Only 12 days after
officially announced his candidacy, Jeffries won the vote on the 30th without any challenger, becoming the highest-ranking black congressional leader in American history.
But Politico revealed that behind the scenes, Democrats throughout the caucus said that Jeffries, and his top deputies Clark and Aguilar, benefited from years of careful planning.
Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri said that when he first joined Jeffries’ campaign two and a half years ago, he found that about 10 Democrats were meeting regularly with Jeffries to prepare for his eventual promotion.
As another senior Democrat said: "The campaign is over before anyone else knows what's going on."
The new Democratic leadership represents nearly every faction of the party, and some supporters quipped that the Republican Party could not have devised a more fitting trio: a black man, a progressive woman and a Latino man, who together represent both coasts of the United States and mix progressive and moderate views.
Jeffries was first elected in 2012. He has been an ally of Pelosi and has continued to rise in the party. However, unlike Pelosi, who was born into a political family, Jeffries was born into a family of slaves and Cape Verdean descendants, and grew up in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York in the 1980s and 1990s. It is worth mentioning that Jeffries likes hip-hop music and is also responsible for organizing the annual Capitol Hill hip-hop event.
Beginning in 2000, when Jeffries was about 30 years old, he ran for office three times before winning a seat in the state House. In 2012, he successfully entered Congress. Jeffries is known in Congress as a calm, disciplined man. He championed liberal essentials such as abortion rights and universal health care, and has also been committed to fighting racial injustice.
Clark, who was selected as the No. 2 figure, first entered Congress in 2013. She previously held multiple positions in the Massachusetts government. She has risen through the ranks in recent years, earning a seat on the powerful House Appropriations Committee and always aligning herself with the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
3 character Aguilar successfully won a seat in California in 2014 and entered Congress. After winning re-election to the House last week, he said he planned to oppose the Republican legislative agenda and sought to portray the party as anti-social spending and anti-worker.
Tough challenges for Pelosi's successor
Although the Democratic Party has carefully planned "unity" for the largest power transition in 20 years, internally, there are still thorny issues waiting to be resolved.
Jeffries has previously argued that the left's approach is unrealistic and self-defeating. In turn, many progressives in the Democratic Party view him with strong distrust and even hostility, believing that he is too concerned with corporate interests and too cautious in addressing climate change. Therefore, suspicion and hostility from progressive elements in the party may be one of the first and most difficult challenges that Jeffries faces after taking over as Pelosi.
It is worth noting that when Democrats expressed their support for Jeffries, the well-known progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) was slow to express her position, saying that she was still "processing" Pelosi's decision to resign.
At the same time, some Democrats also believe that this uncontested election missed the opportunity to discuss how the Democratic Party has transformed and how to move forward. For example, AOC said: "This is the most significant generational change we have seen among House Democrats in decades. I personally think we would benefit from having a debate about what this means."
In short, the Pelosi era of House Democrats is over. The new trio - Jeffries, Clark, Aguilar - will officially take over when the change takes place in January next year. But they are facing a House of Representatives in which the Democratic Party no longer holds a majority, and a Senate that barely holds on next door. There will be many obstacles in advancing the legislative agenda. Pelosi has always been known for her tough legislative approach, but the 52-year-old Jeffries is obviously weak in legislative experience. Whether he can unite the various factions within the party in a divided Congress and whether he can lead the House Democrats to complete legislation and other matters are all question marks.
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