Hakeem Jeffries

On January 15, 2020, Jeffries was selected as one of seven House managers presenting the impeachment case against President Donald Trump during his trial before the United States Senate. On January 22, 2020, a protester in the Senate gallery interrupted Rep.Jeffries by yelling comments at the senators seated a floor below. Jeffries quickly responded with a scripture verse Psalm 37:28. “For the Lord loves justice and will not abandon his faithful ones,” he said from the lectern, before continuing with his testimony.

Jeffries supports banning discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. In 2019, he voted in favor of the Equality Act and urged Congress members to do the same.

On December 18, 2019, Jeffries voted for both articles of impeachment against President Donald J. Trump.

On November 28, 2018, Jeffries defeated California Congresswoman Barbara Lee to become Chair of the House Democratic Caucus. His term began when the new Congress was sworn in on January 3, 2019.

In 2015, calls were been made among prominent African-American pastors for Jeffries to step into the 2017 Democratic primary for Mayor against Bill de Blasio. Jeffries has stated that he has "no interest" and wishes to remain an effective member of Congress.

Jeffries expected to give Towns a strong challenge in the Democratic primary—the real contest in this heavily Democratic, black-majority district. However, with Jeffries assembling "a broad coalition of support" and having more cash than the incumbent, Towns announced his retirement on April 16, leaving Jeffries to face city councilman Charles Barron in the Democratic primary.

He is pro-Israel, saying at a rally in July 2014 "Israel should not be made to apologize for its strength." Citing his own childhood growing up in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Jeffries added that he knew from experience that "the only thing that neighbors respect in a tough neighborhood is strength."

As a member of Congress, he has called for a federal investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice into the circumstances surrounding the death of Eric Garner. On a visit to the Staten Island site where Garner was killed, recorded by a CNN news crew in December 2014, Jeffries encountered Gwen Carr, the victim's mother. In April 2015, Jeffries stood with Carr to announce the introduction of the Excessive Use of Force Prevention Act of 2015 that would make the use of a chokehold illegal under federal law.

On July 15, 2014, Jeffries, who in private practice addressed intellectual property issues, introduced the To establish the Law School Clinic Certification Program of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (H.R. 5108; 113th Congress), which would establish the Law School Clinic Certification Program of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to be available to accredited law schools for the ten-year period after enactment of the Act.

In 2015, Jeffries led the effort in Congress to pass The Slain Officer Family Support Act, which extended the tax deadline for individuals making donations to organizations supporting the families of assassinated NYPD Detectives Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos. The families of the officers, who had been assassinated in their patrol car on December 20, 2014 in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Jeffries' district, had been the recipients of significant charitable fundraising. Prior to the enactment of the new law, individuals would have had to make those contributions by December 31, 2014 to qualify for a tax deduction in connection with taxes filed in 2015. With the legal change, contributions made until April 15, 2015 were deductible. President Obama signed the bill into law on April 1, 2015.

In 2014, he supported Rubain Dorancy as Democratic candidate for state senate, who lost to Jesse Hamilton by a wide margin.

On January 3, 2013, Jeffries was sworn into the 113th Congress.

In addition to legislation mentioned above, on April 11, 2013, Jeffries introduced the Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument Preservation Act (H.R. 1501; 113th Congress) into the United States House of Representatives. Jeffries's proposed bill would direct the Secretary of the Interior to study the suitability and feasibility of designating the Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument in Fort Greene Park in the New York City borough of Brooklyn as a unit of the National Park System (NPS). Jeffries said that "as one of America's largest revolutionary war burial sites and in tribute to the patriots that lost their lives fighting for our nation's independence, this monument deserves to be considered as a unit of the National Park Service." On April 28, 2014, the Prison Ship Martyrs's Monument Preservation Act was passed by the House.

In 2013, Jeffries endorsed in the race for Brooklyn District Attorney, the seat held since 1990 by Charles' "Joe" Hynes, whose office was facing deep criticism for wrongful convictions and botched prosecutions. He endorsed Kenneth Thompson, whom Jeffries had met while interning at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District in the 1990s, when Thompson was a prosecutor.

In the 2013 NYC mayoral race, Jeffries endorsed City Comptroller Bill Thompson, hailing his experience in City government. Jeffies also noted he was offended by Bill de Blasio's ad featuring stop and frisk claiming himself as the only candidate who would address, modify or reform stop and frisk:

Jeffries announced he would give up his Assembly seat to run in New York's 8th congressional district in January 2012. The district, which includes the Brooklyn communities of Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Bed-Stuy, Brownsville, East New York, Canarsie, Mill Basin and Coney Island along with South Ozone Park and Howard Beach in the borough of Queens, had previously been the 10th, represented by 30-year incumbent Democrat Edolphus Towns. On the steps of Brooklyn's Borough Hall, Jeffries said: "Washington is broken. Congress is dysfunctional. People are suffering. We deserve more."

On June 11, 2012, former Mayor Ed Koch, Congressman Jerrold Nadler, Councilman David Greenfield, and Assemblyman Dov Hikind gathered with several other elected officials to support Jeffries and denounce Barron. The officials described Barron as anti-Semitic and denounced his allegedly anti-Semitic statements, while also denouncing his support of Zimbabwe ruler Robert Mugabe and former Libya ruler Muammar Gaddafi. Barron responded that such attacks were a distraction from bread and butter issues.

Green Party candidate Colin Beavan called on Jeffries to "get the money out of politics", noting that as of his March 2012 filing, "he had received about $180,000, or 35 percent of his funds, from Wall Street bankers and their lawyers". Beaven added that Jeffries gets many campaign donations from charter school backers and hedge fund managers. After primary night, when asked about his two most important concerns, Jeffries replied eliminating the "crushing burden" of private religious school education costs.

After out-raising him by hundreds of thousands of dollars, Jeffries defeated Barron in the primary election on June 26, 2012, 72 to 28 percent. A New York Daily News post-election editorial noted that Barron had been "repudiated" in all parts of the Congressional district, including among neighbors on Barron's own block in East New York, where the Councilman lost 57-50. The Daily News also analyzed Jeffries' donations in the last weeks of the campaign and found almost 50 percent came from out of state. He went on to defeat Beavan and Republican Alan Bellone in the November general election with 71 percent of the vote, but not before declining to attend a pre-primary debate with third party candidates, saying that the presence of the Green Party and Republican candidates at the debate would "confuse" voters.

While President Barack Obama did not openly support candidates in Democratic primaries, he and President Bill Clinton together took a photograph with Jeffries weeks before his 2012 Congressional primary against Councilman Charles Barron, which was effectively used in campaign literature.

In a 2012 special election, Jeffries endorsed Walter T. Mosley, who was successful in a special election run to succeed Jeffries in State Assembly.

In that state senate race, as in several others since 2012, Jeffries has endorsed opponents of candidates endorsed by current Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, which has created the perception of a rivalry between the two prominent elected officials. Both Jeffries and Adams have dismissed these perceptions, noting their shared history (they had together served as prime co-sponsors of the 2010 stop-frisk database bill in the state legislature) with Jeffries adding.: "Over the years, we've often disagreed about the best candidate for our community. But when the election is over, we should all work together to get things done."

Two years later, in 2008, he won re-election to a second term, defeating the Republican candidate Charles Brickhouse, with 98 percent of the vote. In 2010 he won re-election to a third term, easily defeating the Republican candidate Frank Voyticky.

During 2007, while still in his first term in the State Assembly, Jeffries publicly endorsed and supported Barack Obama, and was among Obama's earliest supporters in Hillary Clinton's home state. In one interview, he noted ""When I first ran for office, some people suggested that someone with the name "Hakeem Jeffries" could never get elected and when I saw someone with the name "Barack Obama" get elected to the U.S. Senate, it certainly inspired me."

In 2006 Green decided to retire from the Assembly in order to run for New York's 10th congressional district against incumbent Democratic U.S. Congressman Ed Towns. Jeffries ran for the 57th district again and won the Democratic primary, defeating Bill Batson and Freddie Hamilton 64 percent to 25 percent and 11 percent. In the general election, he handily defeated Republican nominee Henry Weinstein.

Since fall 2006 he has been a cautious supporter of Bruce Ratner's controversial Atlantic Yards project.

After the July 23, 2003, murder of Jeffries's close friend and political ally, James Davis, Jeffries was considered a potential successor to Davis on the New York City Council. Jeffries had been named by Davis as a preferred replacement should he be elected to higher office. After the Democratic nomination went to Davis's surviving brother Geoffrey, who was mired in a domestic violence scandal, Jeffries was considered for the Working Families Party nomination, but he did not put his name forward for consideration. Tish James was ultimately nominated by the WFP and elected.

During post-census redistricting, Jeffries's district was drawn one block outside of Green's Assembly district. Jeffries was still legally permitted to run in the district for the 2002 cycle, as state law only requires a candidate to live in the same county as a district they seek in the first election after a redistricting, but this still complicated Jeffries’s path. Jeffries described the re-drawing of the district as a "desperate act by a career politician trying to save his government job". Green responded that the lines had actually been re-drawn to remove parts of Jeffries's affluent Prospect Heights neighborhood in favor of public housing, and insisted that he had not even known where Jeffries had lived.

The lasting effects of the 2002 redistricting left Jeffries notably unable to challenge Green in the 2004 Democratic primary, which took place just months after Green had been forced to resign from his seat by Sheldon Silver and Democratic leadership after pleading guilty to billing the state for false travel expenses. Green was ultimately re-nominated unopposed.

In 2000, Jeffries challenged incumbent Assemblyman Roger Green in the Democratic primary, criticizing Green for becoming inattentive to the needs of the constituency and preoccupied with the pursuit of higher office (Green had briefly run for New York City Public Advocate in 1997 and had spoken of his plans to run for Congress upon the retirement of Edolphus Towns). A contentious debate between the two candidates, moderated by Dominic Carter on NY1, ended prematurely after Jeffries began his closing statement by saying "the issue in this race is not age -- yes, the assemblyman is older, I'm younger. It's not religion -- yes, the assemblyman is a practicing Muslim and I grew up in the Cornerstone Baptist Church." Green interrupted Jeffries to protest "practicing Muslim? Where'd that come from? I'm absolutely offended, are you trying to polarize our community?" before walking out of the studio, later accusing Jeffries of playing "the religion card." Jeffries contended that his point was that voters should focus on the issues rather than the age or religion of the candidates. Jeffries ultimately lost the Democratic primary 59 percent to 41 percent, but remained on the Independence Party line in the general election, receiving 7 percent while Green received 90 percent and was re-elected to an 11th term.

In 1988, Jeffries graduated from Midwood High School. In 1992, Jeffries received a B.A. degree in political science from Binghamton University with honors. During this time he became a member of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. In 1994, he received a MPP degree from Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy. In 1997, Jeffries received a J.D. degree from New York University School of Law.

Hakeem Sekou Jeffries (/ˌ h ɑː ˈ k iː m / ; born August 4, 1970) is an American politician and attorney who has served as the U.S. Representative for New York's 8th congressional district since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, his district covers parts of the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. A corporate lawyer by occupation, he worked for Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, then Viacom and CBS, before running for and serving in the New York State Assembly from 2007 to 2012, representing the 57th Assembly District. Jeffries has also chaired the House Democratic Caucus since 2019.

With a high concentration of public housing and high unemployment in his district, Jeffries has also made an issue of HUD's failure to adequately enforce Section 3 of its initial creating statute from 1968, which explicitly required that federally funded capital and rehabilitation projects in public housing developments had to employ residents of those developments. As Jeffries noted, "we can download the power of the federal government into neighborhoods that are struggling the most, without legislative action. The most promising area is Section 3."

In Congress, as the Congressional Black Caucus' Whip, he has been actively involved in maintaining the CBC historic role as "the conscience of the Congress." In his CBC role, he has hosted Special Orders on the House floor, including regarding voting rights (after the Supreme Court decision weakening the 1965 Voting Rights Act) and in December 2014, leading CBC members in a "hands up, don't shoot" protest to protest the killings of African-Americans by police. After the shootings in Charleston in June 2015 by a white supremacist inspired by the Confederate flag, Jeffries led the effort to have the flag removed for sale or display on National Park Service land, an amendment eventually killed by the Republican House leadership after its initial support and inclusion on voice vote. During dramatic debate on the House floor, Jeffries stood next to the Confederate battle flag, and noted he "got chills" and lamented that the "Ghosts of the Confederacy have invaded the GOP."

The following year, Jeffries backed Laurie Cumbo in the hotly contested race for Brooklyn's 35th city council seat vacated by Tish James, who won the City-wide race for Public Advocate, also with a Jeffries endorsement.