House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is having a very good month. Polling cited by the Washington Examiner shows the Democratic battleground map widening into districts once considered safe Republican territory, and the New York congressman is capitalizing — embarking on what he told reporters will be a personal 15- to 20-state voter push through October.
On Saturday, Jeffries joined Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro at a rally inside Charles Boehm Middle School in Lower Makefield, urging more than 150 Bucks County Democrats to turn out for Bob Harvie, the county commissioner and former high school social studies teacher challenging six-term Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick in Pennsylvania's 1st Congressional District. Fitzpatrick won the seat in 2024 by nearly 13 points, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The race is one of at least four Pennsylvania districts Democrats are targeting, per the Inquirer.
"The commonwealth is a big swing state, and Bucks County is a big swing county," Jeffries said. Shapiro, making his second straight weekend trip to Bucks County, told the crowd, "If Hakeem Jeffries is the speaker, they'll fight to reverse those cuts and look out for our neighbors."
The stops generate headlines. The math generates the problem. If Democrats flip the House in November, Jeffries becomes speaker for the final two years of President Donald Trump's second term. Six candidates aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America and progressive factions have so far declined to back him, the Examiner reports — New York's Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez, and New Jersey's Adam Hamawy among them.
Trying to Close the Sale in New Jersey
The New Jersey Globe reported Sunday that Herb Bennett, who is challenging Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield) in the state's 7th District, now says she would vote for Jeffries — with a caveat. "Yes, I will vote for him, but I've got to win first," Bennett said after a Saturday event with Jeffries at Greater Mount Moriah Church in Linden.
"Yes, I will vote for him, but I've got to win first." — Herb Bennett, Democratic candidate, NJ-7
That answer is a long way from May, when Bennett was one of three Democratic candidates who declined to raise a hand at a debate co-sponsored by the New Jersey Globe and Rider University when asked whether they would support Jeffries for speaker. Tina Shah was the only candidate on that stage who committed to him.
Jeffries, who has led House Democrats since 2023, also declined to say whether national Democrats will spend money in New Jersey's 2nd District, where Democrat Zachary Mullock is challenging Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis), a former Democrat who switched parties in 2019. Asked about the race and his relationship with Van Drew, the Globe reported, Jeffries did not directly answer.
The Republican Headwinds
The Examiner's reporting notes Republicans are defending their majority against political pressure on several fronts this cycle, including the war with Iran, consumer prices and interest rates. Michelle Rumford, a 57-year-old teacher from Levittown who attended Saturday's rally with her mother, told the Inquirer she came to hear Harvie's plans on costs: "Gas prices. Grocery prices. All prices have gone up."
For all the national momentum, Jeffries is still playing defense inside his own tent. Candidates in safe blue districts can afford to snub the leadership. Candidates in swing districts like Bennett's cannot — and her careful wording is a reminder that the speaker's gavel is not awarded by polls, but by 218 individual votes, many of them cast by members who will want concessions before they'll hand it over.
It is not yet known whether national Democrats will invest in the Van Drew race, or how the six holdouts would vote in a floor ballot. Jeffries' office did not respond to a request for comment from Next News Network by publication time.
Our Take
Here's what the out-of-touch legacy media will not tell you while they write glowing profiles of the man who could be speaker: Hakeem Jeffries is struggling to lock down his own conference. Six candidates aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America — the same crowd that marches with the groups burning American cities — are publicly refusing to commit to him. That should tell Patriot readers everything about where today's Democrat Party lives.
And Jeffries doesn't want to answer for it. When the New Jersey Globe pressed him on Van Drew and the 2nd District, he clammed up. When Bennett was asked in May whether she'd back him, she kept her hand down. Now she says yes — but only if she wins first. That's the energy of a politician hedging, not a leader commanding.
Shapiro can promise Bucks County voters that Jeffries will "look out for our neighbors," but the polling driving the Democrats' optimism is a snapshot, not a verdict. Trump won Pennsylvania in 2024. Fitzpatrick won this very district by nearly 13 points. The Examiner notes Republicans are fighting a war with Iran that voters didn't ask for — but that's a problem for incumbents, not a mandate for socialism.
The question Patriots need answered before November: if Jeffries can't get six socialist candidates to say his name out loud, what deal does he make to get them to raise the gavel — and who pays for it?
