Jeffries puts rare public pressure on fellow Dems
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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries speaks at a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 18. Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) went public Wednesday with his pressure campaign urging Democratic state legislators to vote on a new congressional map.
Why it matters: Jeffries doesn't usually put himself in such public conflict with fellow Democrats, but he'll need every advantage he can get in his quest to become speaker in 2027.
- The universe of competitive House seats is already historically small this midterm cycle.
- Jeffries is trying to persuade as many Democratic-controlled states as possible to redraw their legislative maps to counteract the GOP's mid-decade redistricting in Texas, Missouri and elsewhere.
Driving the news: Jeffries met Wednesday with Maryland state Senate President Bill Ferguson in Annapolis to discuss a proposed map that would draw out the state's last remaining House Republican.
- Ferguson has resisted calls from Jeffries and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) to let state senators vote on the map, which was approved earlier this month by the state's House of Delegates.
- Following the meeting, Jeffries said in a statement that Ferguson "authentically believes that the votes don't exist in the State Senate to move forward."
- "The only way to find out is to allow an immediate up-or-down vote on the Senate floor with respect to the new congressional map passed by the House of Delegates," he added.
The other side: "It's precisely because we want Leader Jeffries in the majority that most members in the Maryland Senate Democratic Caucus do not support moving forward with mid-cycle redistricting," Ferguson said in a statement.
- The state Senate president warned that the proposal will "backfire in our State courts and lose Democrats in Congress."
- Despite Democrats controlling the governor's mansion and both chambers of the state legislature, five of the seven judges on the state supreme court were appointed by former GOP Gov. Larry Hogan.
- State courts previously threw out a map Maryland Democrats drew in 2022, which a judge described as an "extreme gerrymander."
Zoom out: Jeffries was successful in pressing Democratic legislators to draw new maps in California and Virginia that could collectively net Democrats as many as nine seats.
- But he has faced resistance elsewhere, with Democrats in New York and Illinois declining to attempt mid-decade redraws — though a New York judge's ruling may still help Democrats pick up one seat.
- Jeffries has previously nudged Ferguson on the issue, saying in a Sunday interview on CNN: "One man shouldn't stand in the way of the people of Maryland … being able to decide, 'Should we go in this direction?'"
