No One Is Too Powerful To Primary— The Case Against Hakeem Jeffries Starts in Brooklyn

Safe Seats, Stale Leadership: Structural Rot Protecting Dan Crenshaw & Hakeem Jeffries

Harris County, Texas (Houston plus) is, for the most part, nice and blue. Trump lost the county all three times— with 41.6% against Hillary, with 42.7% against Biden and with 46.4% last year against Kamala. About 5 million people live in the sprawling county, the third most populous in the U.S. Conservative Republican Dan Crenshaw is one of the 9 Members of Congress representing part of the county. 4 others, like him, are Republicans and the other 4 are Democrats. Crenshaw’s district (TX-02) is in the northern and eastern parts of the county and it includes the southern part of Montgomery County. The PVI is R+12, putting it out of reach of any Democratic candidate. The only way Crenshaw can be held accountable is in a primary. And, unloved by the MAGA crowd, he has 7 GOP opponents so far, the most recent, very far right state Rep Steve Toth.

Most districts in the U.S. are something like Crenshaw’s— either too blue or too red for an incumbent to face a serious challenge in a general election— which is why over 95% of incumbents win over and over and over. It’s a flaw in our democracy. Because of gerrymandering and geographic sorting, the outcome of the general election is often a foregone conclusion. That means the only real competition happens in the primary— if there even is one. In deep-red districts, the battle is often between different flavors of conservatism, while in deep-blue districts, it’s usually establishment Democrats versus progressives. In both cases, the general election becomes a mere formality. So if you want to change who represents you— or even just hold them accountable for bad votes, corruption, or complacency— the only viable path is through a primary challenge. That’s where the real power struggle happens.

And that brings us to Brooklyn (Kings County), the most populous in New York State, with around 2.7 million people. The borough is represented by 5 members of Congress, all but one of them, Nicole Malliotakis, most of whose district encompasses Staten Island, Democrats. Trump lost the borough each time he ran— with just 17.5% against Hillary, 22.1% against Biden and 27.4% against Kamala. 

Hakeem Jeffries’ district (NY-08) is almost entirely in Brooklyn— Bed-Stuy, Brownsville, Canarsie, East New York, East Flatbush, Flatlands, Cony Island, Brighton Beach, Mill Basin, Marine Park, Bergen Beach— just a couple of communities in southwestern, Queens, Ozone Park and Howard Beach, in Queens. The PVI is D+24. The district is dependably blue and  Jeffries, predictably once a corporate lawyer and, less predictably, once an insurgent candidate, won his Assembly seat by taking on Democratic incumbent Roger Green (a progressive) several times and then driving a Democratic incumbent out of Congress in 2012 and winning that seat. All of his reelection bids have been won with over 70% of the vote. He’s never had a tough primary, although that may be about to change.

Jeffries’ energy goes into leading the Democratic House caucus, into working to becoming Speaker, into carrying water for AIPAC and into his corporate donors— not into his constituents. Accountability would be through a primary… and there has been increasing talk of progressives— democratic socialists— finally going after Jeffries, especially since Jeffries has made it clear he has no intention of endorsing Zohran Mamdani for mayor, despite the latter’s massive primary win against the corrupt establishment candidate. Other establishment targets could include Dan Goldman and Ritchie Torres. Justice Democrats, Our Revolution, Democratic Socialists of America, the Working Families Party and Indivisible chapters in NY are all buzzing about the possibility of taking on Jeffries, who represents the calcified center of the Democratic Party: corporate-aligned, triangulating and— despite his own political genesis— allergic to grassroots energy. As leader of the House Democrats, he’s positioned himself, with Blue Dog Josh Gottheimer, as a firewall against the party’s left flank. He has consistently worked to sideline progressives in Congress and to block insurgents from winning office. He backed Henry Cuellar, the only anti-choice Democrat in the House, against Jessica Cisneros— twice. 

Even as the Israeli government continues its brutal assault on Gaza, Jeffries has done everything in his power to help AIPAC shield Netanyahu’s regime from criticism. While hundreds of thousands of Americans— particularly younger voters, Muslim voters, and progressive Jewish voters— demand a ceasefire and a realignment of U.S. foreign policy, Jeffries has treated them as a nuisance, not a constituency, making a primary challenge more than a symbolic gesture. It’s a referendum on the future of the Democratic Party. Does it continue to cling to the politics of incrementalism, donor-class appeasement and consultant-oriented triangulation? Or does it embrace a multiracial, working-class coalition that’s energized by climate justice, universal healthcare, housing rights, and a foreign policy grounded in human rights rather than campaign checks?

Jeffries, of course, has name recognition, money and massive institutional backing. But the winds are shifting. I see it like this— if groups like DSA, Justice Democrats, and WFP unite around a challenger who can speak credibly to the needs of Brooklyn's working families— on rent, wages, transit, schools and Gaza— Jeffries could face his first real fight in over a decade. After all, New York progressives have already taken down machine-backed incumbents with more local clout than Jeffries. Just ask Joe Crowley or Brian Benjamin. This is how change happens in a broken system— bit by bit, district by district, challenge by challenge. For all the talk of "saving democracy," one of the most powerful ways to do it is by making sure that no one, not even the Minority Leader of the U.S. House, is politically invincible. If Jeffries has forgotten what it's like to have to earn the people’s trust, then maybe it’s time someone reminds him— in the voting booth in the 2026 primary.

Meanwhile, though, Team Hakeem, reports CNN, is warning progressives not “to go to war with them or mistake them for Cuomo, they say, or even, in a phrase Jeffries often returns to, expect them to ‘bend the knee’ as they weigh whether to endorse Mamdani. Jeffries will make an endorsement decision after he meets with the candidate in person next week. And a top Jeffries adviser this week issued a pointed warning: Target the House minority leader and he won’t just beat them; he’ll respond by going after the democratic socialists from Brooklyn elected to the state legislature, whose primaries would be on the same day next year. ‘Leader Hakeem Jeffries is focused on taking back the House from the MAGA extremists who just ripped health care away from millions of Americans,’ Jeffries senior adviser André Richardson told CNN. ‘However, if Team Gentrification [the ugly, racist and insulting term Jeffries uses to describe Mamdani’s progressive coalition] wants a primary fight, our response will be forceful and unrelenting. We will teach them and all of their incumbents a painful lesson on June 23, 2026.’”

Jeffries has spent years daring those he tends to dismiss as poser progressives to try to take him on. The last time he faced a challenge from a socialist— in the 2012 primary for his first election against a longtime city councilman — he got 71% of the vote. He’s only done better since.

But he has for years been tagged by the city’s far left as a [an establishment conservative]. Opponents like to point to his fundraising as evidence, calling him a corporate Democrat.

“His leadership has left a vacuum that organizations like DSA are filling. I think that is more important right now,” New York City’s Democratic Socialists of America chapter co-chair Gustavo Gordillo told CNN. “To me it often seems like he is the one picking the fight with the left, and I think he should focus on fighting the right.”

State Sen. Jabari Brisport, a democratic socialist who represents some of the same parts of Brooklyn as Jeffries, said his congressman is “rapidly growing out of touch with an insurgent and growing progressive base within his own district that he should pay more attention to.”

Mamdani won roughly 46% of the first-round primary vote in Jeffries’ congressional district compared to the nearly 38% carried by Cuomo.

A challenge needs a challenger, though. Brisport ruled out a run. No one else is stepping up yet either.

Rep. Greg Meeks, who endorsed Andrew Cuomo in the mayor’s race, called anyone thinking of a primary against Jeffries “foolish.”

“We are all here to combat some of the craziness that Donald Trump is doing,” Meeks said. “The only way to do that is to win the House majority and we have an opportunity to elect a New Yorker, who would be the first African American to be the speaker of the House, which then puts a check on Donald Trump and controls everything that’s on this floor.”

Besides AOC and Nydia Velázquez, both of whom had endorsed Mamdani in the primary, Adriano Espaillat, a former Cuomo backer, and Jerry Nadler, who had supported his old friend Scott Stringer’s DOA run, are now on Team Zohran. If Jeffries knows what’s good for him, he’ll get on board as well. This corporate shill should never be Speaker of the House.