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House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries fields questions at a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday.
As Hakeem Jeffries remains in the minority in a GOP-run Washington, he continues to dwell on what he sees as a Republican gerrymandering maneuver that denied him the speaker’s gavel — and stripped his party of House control.
This time, he’s determined that Democrats won’t sit back.
Jeffries is spearheading his party’s response to Donald Trump’s aggressive mid-decade redistricting campaign. He is deploying financial resources, legal muscle and his own political clout to ensure Democrats contest every possible seat — even if that means setting aside the party’s long-held moral objections to partisan map-drawing.
“Republicans started this redistricting war, and Democrats have made clear we’re going to finish it,” Hakeem Jeffries said in an interview with CNN. “When they go low, we strike back.”
Senior Democrats, Jeffries among them, are encouraged by what they see as a rising wave of anti-Donald Trump sentiment nationwide — including special election victories in deep-red areas of Texas — and are optimistic about winning back the House, and possibly the Senate, in November. Still, Jeffries argues Democrats can’t afford to overlook Republican gerrymandering, noting that a net loss of just three seats in North Carolina in 2024 was enough to cost them the majority.
After a major redistricting victory in California, Jeffries has pledged to invest “tens of millions” of dollars to advance an April ballot initiative in Virginia that could net Democrats four additional seats. He is also shifting focus to Maryland, where the party’s most ambitious gerrymandering effort faces stiff resistance. Jeffries and other senior Democrats are ramping up pressure on a pivotal figure — 42-year-old Baltimore native and state Senate President Bill Ferguson — who has declined to back a plan to redraw maps in a way that would target the state’s lone Republican-held congressional district.
Jeffries delivered a pointed warning to Ferguson, suggesting that failing to act could bolster Trump’s GOP in the midterm elections.