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Dozens of Democratic candidates competing for U.S. House seats around the country told Axios that they would not support House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) for party leader or were not ready to say they would vote for him.
The site said this week that the answers show that some Democrats are becoming more worried about the party’s present leadership as the 2026 election season approaches.
Hakeem Jeffries has had the full backing of his caucus since he became the Democratic leader in 2022. However, that unity may be put to the test in the next Congress as grassroots activists, especially those on the left side of the party, become more and more frustrated.
Progressives have been criticizing Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) a lot this year, but Axios says that Jeffries is also becoming a target of their anger.
Axios got in touch with almost every Democrat running for a U.S. House seat that the party thinks it might be able to win in 2026. They got answers from 113 candidates through phone interviews or written statements.
Twenty of the people who were asked stated they would not vote for Hakeem Jeffries as speaker or minority leader. Five others said they were likely to vote against him. Fifty-seven candidates said they would not endorse Jeffries, saying it was too early to decide or citing worries about his ideology, strategy, messaging, or leadership style.
The publication stated that only 24 people said they would definitely support Jeffries, and seven more said they were likely to do so.
But his office fought back against the idea that he had lost support.
“Leader Jeffries is focused on fighting Donald Trump, ending the Republican shutdown of the federal government, and dealing with the terrible GOP health care crisis,” Jeffries spokesperson Justin Chermol told Axios.
A lot of the Democrats who are doubtful about Hakeem Jeffries are political outsiders or long-shot contenders. Several front-runners in important battleground seats didn’t answer Axios’ questions. But some of Jeffries’ critics and candidates who haven’t made up their minds yet have real chances of gaining seats in Congress.
Daniel Biss and Kat Abughazaleh are two of the main candidates in the Democratic primary to replace retiring Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.). Neither of them promised to endorse Jeffries.
Other well-known rivals, such as Luke Bronin, Donavan McKinney, Mai Vang, Saikat Chakrabarti, and Patrick Roath, have also not given their support. Each is launching campaigns with a lot of money behind them to get rid of long-serving Democratic lawmakers.
Heath Howard, a New Hampshire state lawmaker running for an open U.S. House seat, told Axios about the Democratic leader: “I think we need to have a new type of leadership that’s … going to fight back significantly harder against the Trump administration.”
Abughazaleh, on the other hand, told Axios that she would back a leader who is “taking real action against this administration” and that the left should utilize “our leverage to demand progressive change.”
“We have to see improvement, without a doubt,” Amanda Edwards, who used to serve on the Houston city council and is now running in a Texas special election, told the site.
Harry Jarin, a firefighter running against former House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) in a primary, told Axios, “Democratic leadership is not matching the anger of the base right now, and that will have to change one way or another.”
A common reason why candidates who didn’t support Jeffries was his refusal to endorse Zohran Mamdani, a socialist contender for mayor of New York City. This has also upset several left-wing members of Congress.
“His refusal to endorse Zohran makes me nervous that, if I were to become the nominee in my race, he and the party would not support me,” noted Jacob Lawrence, who is set to challenged Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.).
Chakrabarti, when asked whether he would support for Jeffries, quipped: “What is it that Hakeem said about endorsing Zohran? “I’ll talk to him and see where it goes.”
