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By Anna Skinner

Associate News Editor

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Kevin McCarthy's tenure as House speaker was plagued with so much Republican infighting that it eventually led to his downfall.

Representative Hakeem Jeffries is campaigning to hold the same office and remains the overwhelming favorite to become the first Black speaker of the House when the new Congress convenes in January. Despite this, the New York Democrat has faced early resistance from the party's progressive flank and has yet to secure the support of several progressives.

Many are unhappy with his stance on Israel as well as a private meeting he held with Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, before the midterm elections. This has prompted questions about whether Jeffries could face internal problems similar to those that sealed McCarthy's fate.

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While there is no indication that Jeffries currently faces a revolt on the scale of the one that forced McCarthy through 15 ballots in 2023, the resistance offers an early test of whether he can hold together an enlarged and ideologically diverse majority.

“The main similarity [to McCarthy] would be that he’s being challenged from what you might consider the outer ideological edge of his party in the House, and that was true for McCarthy as well,” University of Tennessee professor Andy Busch told Newsweek on Tuesday.

McCarthy faced opposition from far-right Republicans, while Jeffries is “facing some discontent from the most progressive part of the left,” Busch said.

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What Does the House Speaker Do?

The House speaker presides over the House of Representatives and serves as the leader of its majority party, helping set its legislative agenda and guide bills through the chamber.

The position is particularly powerful because the speaker has significant influence over which legislation reaches the floor for a vote and plays a central role in negotiations with the Senate and White House.

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Jeffries Faces Progressive Pushback as Speaker Bid Takes Shape

The House speaker vote will be one of the first tests of whether Democrats can unify after their overwhelming midterm elections victory. But early opposition to Jeffries is already signaling that his path to the post may be more difficult than expected.

Jeffries, who currently serves as House minority leader, launched his bid for speaker on the November 4, a day after the "blue wave" in the midterm elections.

There are several notable differences between Jeffries and McCarthy. For one, Democrats have a much greater House majority than the Republicans in 2023 when McCarthy launched his speaker bid. Come January, there will be at least 254 Democrats in the House compared with 165 Republicans, with some races still undecided a week after the midterms.

If the vote to confirm Jeffries as speaker splits along party lines, Democrats would still hold a roughly 80-vote advantage. Jeffries could therefore afford to lose some support from within his own party and still comfortably win. McCarthy, by contrast, entered the speaker vote with a far narrower Republican majority, leaving him little room for defections.

“I will be shocked if Hakeem Jeffries does not have the votes by January 3 to win the speaker’s gavel in the first round,” University of Akron political science professor David Cohen told Newsweek. “He is in a stronger position than Kevin McCarthy was with the House Freedom Caucus. Jeffries’ caucus will be much bigger than McCarthy’s, which will allow for many defections from the progressive and DSA [Democratic Socialists of America] factions of the Democratic Party.”

One of McCarthy’s greatest hurdles was overcoming the deep division within his own party. A group of far-right Republicans opposed McCarthy over issues including government spending, the power of party leaders and distrust of the Republican establishment. Because Republicans held only a narrow House majority, even a small number of holdouts had significant power, contributing to the 15 rounds of voting it took McCarthy to become speaker.

It is here where some similarities begin to emerge. While Democrats are largely united on the kitchen-table issues that drove their success during the midterm elections, divisions remain over the direction of the party and how its new majority should govern. Those disagreements have already fueled some resistance to Jeffries, raising questions about whether different factions of the Democratic caucus will fall in line behind him.

Among those uncertain whether or not they will support Jeffries are:

• Claire Valdez, a Democratic Socialist who will represent New York's 7th Congressional District
• Darializa Avila Chevalier, a Democratic Socialist who won New York's 13th Congressional District
• Melat Kiros, a progressive Democrat who will represent Colorado's 1st Congressional District

The emerging opposition offers a glimpse of divisions Jeffries could have to navigate as speaker, Busch said.

“There’s definitely a divide among Democrats, and I think that this could be a preview of things to come,” Busch told Newsweek. “It’s not going to be fatal to Jeffries right now. But it could expose certain vulnerabilities in the Democratic coalition going forward.”

Why Are Far-Left Democrats Hesitant to Support Jeffries?

One major source of progressive opposition to Jeffries is his longstanding support for Israel and his relationship with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

Jeffries has maintained close ties with pro-Israel groups and has continued to support the U.S.-Israel relationship even as a growing number of House Democrats have pushed for tougher conditions on U.S. military assistance. In July, Jeffries opposed an effort to immediately cut military aid to Israel, putting him at odds with House Democrats who supported the measure. Progressive critics have also urged Jeffries to distance himself from AIPAC and condemn the group's spending in Democratic primaries.

At the same time, Jeffries has signaled some movement in his position, saying a change in direction is needed in the U.S.-Israel relationship. That leaves him trying to balance his traditionally pro-Israel record with a Democratic caucus that has become substantially more divided over Israel, Gaza and the future of U.S. military assistance.

Opposition to Jeffries’ bid for Speaker has also emerged among the American public. A petition titled “House Democrats: CHOOSE A NEW SPEAKER” launched last week and has already collected over 1.1 million signatures.

“In January 2027, members of the newly elected U.S. House of Representatives will choose who serves as speaker of the House, one of the most powerful leadership positions in Congress,” the petition said. “Hakeem Jeffries is simply not the right choice. We believe the speaker should represent the Democratic voters, not just the Democratic establishment.”

Despite the pushback, Northwestern University political science professor Laurel Harbridge-Yong said Jeffries is unlikely to encounter the same issues as McCarthy did with 15 rounds of voting.

“I think the Democrats want to show that they can govern and will want to work out disagreements behind the scenes rather than let them spillover to the House floor,” Harbridge-Yong told Newsweek.

What Happened to Kevin McCarthy?

McCarthy needed a historic 15 rounds of voting to secure the gavel in January 2023, making a series of concessions to conservative holdouts to gain their support. Nine months later, those divisions helped bring about his downfall after then U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz introduced a motion to remove him following McCarthy’s decision to rely on Democratic votes to avert a government shutdown. Eight Republicans joined Democrats in a 216-210 vote to oust McCarthy, making him the first House speaker in U.S. history to be removed through a motion to vacate.

He declined to seek the speakership again and announced in December that he would resign from Congress at the end of that year.

What Happens Next

House Democrats are scheduled to hold their leadership elections on November 18, when members will vote behind closed doors on their nominee for speaker. Jeffries, who has led House Democrats since 2023 as minority leader, is uncontested so far and expected to win the nomination.

The decisive vote, however, will come when the new Congress convenes on January 3, 2027. The full House elects the speaker, meaning Jeffries would need a majority of the votes cast for a named candidate on the House floor.

Republicans selected their leaders for the next Congress on Tuesday, with Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio elected as House minority leader and John Thune of South Dakota reelected to lead Senate Republicans, this time as minority leader.

Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Samantha Beech and Oliver Pritchard.

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