纽约州皮克斯基尔——凯特·康利（Cait Conley）周六在这里登上舞台时，用了一个哈基姆·杰弗里斯（Hakeem Jeffries）目前尚未拥有的头衔来介绍他：“杰弗里斯议长。”杰弗里斯本人则不会说得那么绝对。他绝不谈论具体数字或领先优势，甚至没有官方宣布自己正在竞选议长。但距离选举日仅剩一周多一点的时间，他“有信心”民主党将夺回众议院。
PEEKSKILL, N.Y. — When Cait Conley took the stage here Saturday, she introduced Hakeem Jeffries by a title he doesn’t yet hold: “Speaker Jeffries.”Jeffries himself won’t go that far. He won’t talk numbers or margins, or even officially say he’s running for speaker. But just over one week out from Election Day, he’s “confident” Democrats are going to win back the House.
“我们正在密切关注得克萨斯州和佛罗里达州的选情，”这位众议院少数党领袖在接受MS NOW采访时，当被问及哪些选情能表明民主党是否度过了一个美好的夜晚时，这样说道。“MAGA极端分子在得克萨斯州和佛罗里达州对国会选区地图进行了不公正划分，企图从这两个州窃取九个不同的席位。这种事在选举日不会发生，我们将赢得其中几个原本被认为遥不可及的席位。”
“We’re watching the races in Texas and Florida closely,” the House minority leader said in an interview with MS NOW when asked what races might inform if Democrats are having a good night. “The MAGA extremists gerrymandered the congressional map in Texas and gerrymandered the congressional map in Florida to try to steal from those two states, nine different seats. That ain’t happening on Election Day, and we’re going to win several of those seats that were previously thought to be out of reach.”
民调机构、政治专家，甚至私下里的一些共和党人，也都认同他对全国选区地图的这种看法，尽管他们对其中的每一场具体竞选未必看法一致。这其中就包括纽约州哈德逊河谷（Hudson Valley）的这场竞选，康利在那里第17国会选区挑战共和党众议员迈克·劳勒（Mike Lawler）。
The polls, the pundits and, privately, even some Republicans share his read of the national map, if not of every race on it. That includes this one in New York’s Hudson Valley, where Conley is challenging Republican Rep. Mike Lawler in the 17th District.
杰弗里斯对MS NOW表示：“我们目前考虑的是赢得面前每一个具有竞争力的席位。”
“What we’re thinking about right now is winning every single seat in front of us that’s competitive,” Jeffries told MS NOW.
他的许多同僚——以及议员们——已经称他为主席。杰弗里斯不愿对此表态，坚称“我们到时再作打算”。
Many of his members — and members — already call him speaker. Jeffries won’t engage, insisting “we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”
然而，他升任众议院议长是华盛顿最稳妥的预测之一。当被追问为何一直回避关于其未来计划的问题时，杰弗里斯表示，那是“因为我们必须专注于眼前的事情。而眼前的事情就是11月3日。一旦度过11月3日，我们就可以专注于1月3日——也就是新一届国会开幕的第一天”。这两者之间的数周时间可能会至关重要。特朗普政府已经激起了人们对联邦干预选举的担忧——无论是通过最近在阿拉斯加的诉讼，还是为在全国各地的投票站部署联邦执法机构（如美国入境及海关执法局）敞开大门。
Yet his rise to the speakership is one of Washington’s safest predictions. Pressed on why he keeps dodging questions about his future plans, Jeffries said it’s “because we have to be focused on what’s in front of us. And what’s in front of us is November 3. Once we get through November 3, then we can focus on January 3 — which is the first day of the new Congress.”The weeks between those two dates could prove crucial. The Trump administration has stoked fears of federal interference in the elections — be it with recent lawsuits in Alaska, or leaving the door open to deploying federal law enforcement agencies, like ICE, to polling places across the country.
上周，一群两党议员致信杰弗里斯和议长迈克·约翰逊，敦促实现权力的和平移交。杰弗里斯表示，他没有专门就那封信与约翰逊交谈过。但他说：“总的来说，我已向约翰逊议长和共和党人明确表示——我们也曾公开和私下说过——我们必须尊重选民的意愿，以确保权力的和平移交。11月3日发生的任何情况，都必须转化为1月3日谁在众议院占多数。”
Last week, a bipartisan group of lawmakers sent a letter to Jeffries and Speaker Mike Johnson urging a peaceful transfer of power. Jeffries said he hasn’t spoken to Johnson specifically about that letter. But, “generally, I’ve made clear to Speaker Johnson and to the Republicans — and we’ve said this publicly and privately — that we have to respect the will of the voters to ensure that there’s a peaceful transfer of power,” Jeffries said. “Whatever happens on November 3rd has to translate into who is in the majority on January 3rd.”
当被问及约翰逊如何回应时，杰弗里斯说：“迈克·约翰逊不会就他视为假设性的情况发表评论，归根结底，我们到时候再过那座桥。我认为选举结果将足够明确，清楚地显示民主党将控制众议院。我们将看到民主党在选票的各个层面、在全国各地获胜，就像自特朗普政府一开始以来我们反复看到的那样。”
Asked how Johnson responded, Jeffries said: “Mike Johnson is not going to get into what he views as a hypothetical situation, and at the end of the day, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. I think the elections are going to be decisive enough that it’s going to be clear that Democrats are going to be in control of the House of Representatives. We’re going to see Democrats win up and down the ballot, and all across the country, as we’ve seen repeatedly since the very beginning of the Trump administration.”Affordability and accountability Jeffries believes the electoral tides have shifted in his party’s favor because of how he has guided its pushback against the president.
物价负担与问责杰弗里斯认为，选情已向有利于其所在政党的方向转变，是因为他领导了该党对总统的反击。
Polls show Trump as unpopular as ever, though Democrats still lag in favorability themselves. Jeffries pointed to polling that gives Democrats an edge in trust on most key issues, from the economy and inflation to the ongoing war in Iran. He credits that shift less to backlash against Trump than to “the fact that we’ve successfully and aggressively pushed back against MAGA extremism.”That pushback is central to the two-part message Democrats are pitching on the trail: affordability and accountability.
民调显示，特朗普的声望依然低迷，尽管民主党自身的好感度仍落后。杰弗里斯指出，民调显示民主党在大多数关键议题上更受信任，从经济和通胀到伊朗的持续战争。他将这种转变归功于“我们成功且强力地反击了MAGA极端主义”，而非对特朗普的反弹。这种反击是民主党在竞选中推出的两部分核心信息——物价负担与问责——的核心。
On accountability, the next target may be Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has lately drawn fire from members of both parties in Washington. On the stump Saturday, Jeffries vowed to “run Pete Hegseth out of town.”“It means that we’re going to hold him accountable in the same way that we held Pam Bondi and Kristi Noem accountable,” Jeffries said afterward. But Trump is the one who pushed out both Bondi, as attorney general, and Noem, as homeland security secretary, after controversies mounted, many of them stoked by lawmakers from both parties on Capitol Hill.
在问责方面，下一个目标可能是国防部长皮特·海格塞斯，他最近受到了华盛顿两党议员的抨击。杰弗里斯周六在竞选集会上誓言要“把皮特·海格塞斯赶出华盛顿”。杰弗里斯事后表示：“这意味着我们要以追究帕姆·邦迪和克里斯蒂·诺姆的方式追究他的责任。”但邦迪作为总检察长、诺姆作为国土安全部长，都是在争议不断升级后被特朗普赶下台的，其中许多争议是由国会山的两党议员煽动的。
“And Pete Hegseth needs to be pushed aside by the president, or we’re going to have to deal with that situation if he is not.”That is the closest Jeffries has come to backing impeachment. His stance could be tested days after the midterms, when a resolution introduced earlier this fall to impeach Hegseth is set to reach the House floor.
杰弗里斯说：“皮特·海格塞斯需要被总统靠边站，否则如果他没有被靠边站，我们将不得不处理这种情况。”这是杰弗里斯迄今为止最接近支持弹劾的表态。他的立场可能会在期中选举几天后受到考验，当时今年秋天早些时候提交的一项弹劾海格塞斯的决议预计将提交至众议院全院审议。
“What I’m inclined to do,” Jeffries said when asked whether he would support it, “is to act consistently with what I’ve said relative to Pete Hegseth from the very beginning: I called for Pete Hegseth to be fired by Donald Trump in the spring of 2025. He is deeply unqualified.”The fight begins at home For Jeffries, a New Yorker himself, this suburban seat is unfinished business. That’s not only because it could help hand Democrats the House majority.
当被问及是否会支持该决议时，杰弗里斯说：“我倾向于采取的做法是，与我自最初以来针对皮特·海格塞斯的表态保持一致：我在2025年春天就呼吁唐纳德·特朗普解雇皮特·海格塞斯。他极不合格。”战斗从本土开始对于身为纽约人的杰弗里斯来说，这个郊区席位是一项尚未完成的事业。这不仅是因为它可能有助于将众议院多数席位拱手让给民主党。
The Brooklyn native has kept a close eye on how New York’s politics have shifted since 2022, when a string of House losses in the state helped give Republicans control of the chamber. Two years later, as Democrats reeled from Trump’s re-election, New York was a bright spot for the party: It flipped three of those five seats back into the blue column.
这位布鲁克林本地人一直在密切关注自2022年以来纽约政治发生的变化，当时该州的一连串众议院失利帮助共和党获得了对该院的控制权。两年后，正当民主党从特朗普的连任中缓过神来之际，纽约成了该党的一个亮点：它将这五个席位中的三个重新翻转回了民主党阵营。这就是杰弗里斯周六来到哈德逊河谷为了结的工作。
That’s the work Jeffries came to the Hudson Valley on Saturday to finish.
“这是MAGA极端分子的最后挣扎，”他谈到纽约州第17国会选区时说道，“在2024年，我们翻转了四个此前由共和党赢得、现由民主党掌控的席位，我们将在2026年守住这些席位。迈克·劳勒假装是一个讲常识的共和党人，但他实际上只是一个MAGA木偶。凯特·康利是一位美国爱国者，我坚信她会翻转这个席位。”一个被翻转的席位和一个新的多数党地位，将使杰弗里斯距离众议院议长宝座仅一步之遥。
“This is the MAGA extremist’s last stand,” he said of New York’s 17th. “In 2024, we flipped four seats that were previously won by Republicans that are now held by Democrats, and we’re going to hold those seats in 2026. Mike Lawler pretends to be a common sense Republican, but he’s really just a MAGA puppet. Cait Conley is an American patriot, and I’m confident she’s going to flip this seat.”A flipped seat and a new majority would bring Jeffries one step from the speakership.
这将完成三年前开始的代际交替，当时他接替了领导众议院民主党人长达二十年的南希·佩洛西。如果他赢得议长槌，杰弗里斯将成为第一位非洲裔众议院议长。
That would complete a generational handoff that began three years ago, when he succeeded Nancy Pelosi, who led House Democrats for two decades. If he wins the gavel, Jeffries would be the first Black speaker of the House.
他也同样不愿意谈论这件事，并搬出了已故的佐治亚州民主党联邦众议员约翰·刘易斯来解释原因。
He’s reluctant to talk about that, too, and invoked the late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., to explain why.
“约翰·刘易斯——我们所有人、我们许多人曾有幸与他共事……他总是说，‘把目光盯紧目标。’”尘埃落定之前，一切都未结束。但对于民权运动的泰斗刘易斯来说，看到一位非洲裔男子手握众议院议长槌，无疑意义重大。
“John Lewis, who we all, many of us, had the honor to serve with … he would always say, ‘Keep your eye on the prize.’”Nothing is done until it’s done. But for Lewis, a lion of the civil rights movement, seeing a Black man hold the speaker’s gavel would surely have meant something.
“好吧，”杰弗里斯承认道，这比他以往的表态更进一步，“我站在他的肩膀上，以及众多不可思议的传奇人物的肩膀上，这对我意义重大，比如雪莉·奇瑟姆——我部分代表了她曾代表的选区，他们都会像雪莉·奇瑟姆那样，鼓励我们在释放给美国人民的那类极端主义面前做到‘不受收买、不受摆布’。我们必须度过这个时刻。我们必须赢得众议院，这样我们才能开始果断终结这场国家噩梦的进程。”
“Well,” Jeffries allowed, going further than he has before, “it means a lot to me that I stand on his shoulders and the shoulders of so many incredible legends, like Shirley Chisholm, whose district I in part represent, and they would all encourage us, like Shirley Chisholm, to be ‘unbought and unbossed’ in the face of the type of extremism that’s been unleashed on the American people. We got to get through this moment. We got to win the House so we can begin the process of decisively ending this national nightmare.”