US Set to Get Its First Black Speaker of the House [Lee Seok-woo’s Global 24]

[Financial News] The United States is expected to get its first Black Speaker of the House. With it looking all but certain that Democrats will regain a House majority in the November midterms, the arrival of a Black Speaker is effectively just around the corner.
The Washington Post (WP) and other outlets reported on the 22nd, local time, that if Democrats win the November midterms and regain a majority in the House, Hakeem Jeffries (New York), the party’s leader in the House, is all but certain to become the first Black Speaker of the House in US history next January.
Democrats need to gain just three more seats in this federal House election to become the majority party in the House. Recent polls indicate that it is all but certain Democrats will regain majority status in the election.
With the election just around the corner, WP noted that the question facing Jeffries is not whether he can make history as the first Black Speaker of the House, but how he can bring an increasingly ideologically diverse Democratic Party together going forward.
In effect, it was treating the election of a Black Speaker as a foregone conclusion.
Based on WP’s synthesis of assessments from 20 people around Jeffries, including members of Congress, he is a focused strategist with an approachable leadership style who seeks to persuade through discussion.
His colleagues, however, said that Jeffries can sometimes be excessively cautious and deliberative.
Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) said, “Hakeem works hard to make everyone feel that they’re being heard and to understand where they’re coming from,” adding, “He’ll have to be stronger in the [Speaker’s] role, and he will be.”

He became chair of the House Democratic Caucus, the party’s fifth-ranking position in the House, in 2018, and in 2022 was elected the first Black leader of House Democrats.
Born in Brooklyn, New York City, Jeffries completed his undergraduate studies at Binghamton University in New York State, earned a master’s degree in public policy from Georgetown University, and then graduated from New York University School of Law.
He first ran for a seat in the New York State Legislature in 2000, was elected to the state legislature in 2006, and won a seat in Congress after running for the US House of Representatives in 2012.
At one point, speculation circulated that Jeffries might run for mayor of New York City, but he focused on increasing his influence as part of the party leadership in the House.
An aide who requested anonymity described Jeffries as House Democratic leader as “more oriented toward consensus than any of his predecessors” when compared with previous Speakers. The aide said Jeffries is cautious by nature, waiting for views to converge rather than steering the caucus in the direction he wants.
This tendency has sometimes caused dissatisfaction within the party. In particular, two Democratic lawmakers repeatedly sided with Republicans without warning in votes related to the legislative agenda. Despite calls within the party to punish them, Jeffries only said that “a firm response is needed,” and no disciplinary action was actually taken, raising fears that party discipline was breaking down.

Criticism, especially from progressives, has also been directed at Jeffries, who is considered one of the most pro-Israel lawmakers in the party, for not heeding demands from key Democratic constituencies to cut off support for the Israeli government.
The newspaper reported that although ideological diversity among factions within the party has grown, Democratic lawmakers are wary of the kind of heavy-handed leadership seen under former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Rep. Adam Gray (D-Calif.), a moderate, said, “I don’t respond to someone twisting my arm. My response to people who twist my arm is to dig in even more.”
WP said Jeffries’ success or failure as Speaker will depend on how he manages a majority that could prove unstable.
[email protected] Lee Seok-woo, International Affairs Correspondent Reporter