An online petition that demanding that Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) not be the next Democratic Speaker of the House has hit nearly one million signatories on Saturday as the clamor for a leadership change within the party explodes after historic midterm wins driven by populist demands.
As of this writing, the Change.org petition—titled “House Democrats: CHOOSE A NEW SPEAKER”—has 993,764 verified signatories, with the number rapidly rising and almost certain to surpass the million marker at some point during the day.
While the final totals are not yet established, Democrats emerged from Tuesday’s elections with at least 254 seats in the next Congress, reclaiming the majority from the Republicans who currently can count on just 162 seats when new members are sworn in come January.
While Jeffries is clearly the presumptive choice for Democrats, and he formally put himself in the running on Wednesday with a letter to all members, outside progressives have voiced serious opposition given his failure to embrace many of the positions—including backing Medicare for All, taking on entrenched corporate power, and restricting military assistance to Israel over its genocide in Gaza—that have animated voters nationwide this election cycle.
According to the petition:
We believe the Speaker should represent the Democratic voters, not just the Democratic establishment.
The Speaker has enormous influence over the direction of the House, including its legislative priorities and agenda. Before casting their votes, representatives should closely examine Jeffries’s public record, policy positions, campaign donor record and leadership…and listen to constituents who do not want him elevated to Speaker.
This is not a foregone conclusion. There is still time for other Democratic members of the House to step forward and seek the nomination for Speaker, someone whose priorities more closely reflect the voters who hope to elect the Democratic majority.
We are calling on every member of the incoming 120th Congress to vote against Hakeem Jeffries for Speaker in January 2027 and choose a different candidate.
Axios reported Friday that members of Congress have been “inundated” with calls urging them not to elect Jeffries and suggested that some of the hesitations are not just among progressives.
The outlet reporting interviewing “nearly a half-dozen incoming House Democrats in deeply red seats Thursday who declined to state a firm position one way or another on voting for him.”
As Corbin Trent, the former top aide to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) who now runs a progressive organizing outfit called A Fight Worth Having, wrote in a column published at Common Dreams on Friday, “the Democratic leadership we have today is completely ill-suited for this moment. They do not have the vision for what it’s going to take to rebuild the trust the American people have lost in their government, their institutions, and the Democratic Party itself.”
“Democrats have spoken loudly and clearly that they want new leadership,” Trent said of the election. “Unfortunately, too many of the people in Washington aren’t listening.”
While the large Democratic majority in the House makes it easier for Jeffries to maneuver leading up to the leadership vote, and given that no challenger has stepped forward to take him on directly, the betting money is still safe that Jeffries will be the next Speaker of the House.
But the public push denouncing him as the wrong choice of leadership in a moment where Democratic voters are clearly demanding—and expecting—a much bolder agenda, the pressure may yet have an impact on his calculations.
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