The morning after Election Day, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries strode into a news conference with members of his leadership team and tried to keep the focus on the economy.

“We’re humbled by the outcome and we know we have to undertake with the seriousness of purpose a relentless effort to make life more affordable for everyday Americans, for working-class Americans, for middle-class Americans and for all those who aspire to be part of the middle class,” the presumptive speaker of the House told the assembled reporters.

Behind the scenes, rank-and-file members of his party were already jockeying to secure their own priorities and committee seats. A group of freshmen endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America and other progressives are compiling an agenda that will be deeply divisive—and hard to manage—within Jeffries’s newly empowered caucus: expanding taxes on the wealthy, advancing Medicare for All, implementing an arms embargo on Israel and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Jeffries will preside over at least 254 seats, the largest majority in the House of Representatives since President Barack Obama’s first year in office. The landslide was so unexpected that when an early batch of results from Indiana showed such wide Democratic margins, aides huddled at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee headquarters thought their data tracker was glitching, people inside the room said.

Rep. Katherine Clark, Jeffries’s No. 2, greeted him on election night. (André Chung for WSJ) The caucus also contains some of the widest variations in positions in recent years—including the incoming freshmen linked to the DSA and dozens of lawmakers from deep-red Trump districts.

The challenge now facing Jeffries—who would be the first Black speaker—is managing those extremes to deliver on the Democrats’ agenda of cutting costs for Americans, ending the war in Iran and acting as a brake on President Trump during his final two years in the White House.

The party, which will also control the Senate in January, plans to use its power to investigate those who appear to have bent the law or enriched themselves—including the president and his family.

After Trump announced Friday that top White House adviser Stephen Miller would become his next chief of staff, Jeffries called Miller “a dangerous xenophobe and reckless extremist who has American blood on his hands. His presence in government should be eradicated like a malignant tumor. Fire him today,” he wrote on X.

“This is just a big and sometimes unruly caucus,” said Rep. Jared Huffman (D., Calif.), a vice chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, “and holding it together, keeping everybody rowing in the same direction is just an enormously difficult job.”The coming months, he said, “will show how much he’s willing to play the heavy when that is needed to keep folks in line.”

Members of the New Democrat Coalition, a moderate group expected to have about 140 House seats that wants to prioritize tackling inflation and high costs, say they have a bigger mandate—and scores more members—than the party’s left flank.

Representative-elect Melat Kiros, a DSA member, with supporters in Denver on election night. (Rebecca Slezak for WSJ) Progressive supporters, including newly elected representatives Claire Valdez, center, and Chris Rabb, second from right, in June. (Adam Gray/Bloomberg News) Jeffries has had an uneasy relationship with that expanding progressive wing. His past support of Israel has put him at odds with scores of congressional Democrats who want the U.S. to cut off military aid to the country over the war in Gaza, a change Trump recently said should happen by year’s end.

“If leadership doesn’t listen to the populist agenda, there will be consequences that we suffer as a party,” said DSA-endorsed incoming Rep. Chris Rabb of Pennsylvania on Thursday.

The tensions have been on display in Jeffries’s own backyard. A native of Brooklyn who represents a central swath of the New York City borough, Jeffries is facing demands from newly elected socialists whose districts are close to his own. Jeffries’s discomfort with that faction emerged last year, when he waited months to endorse New York’s now-mayor Zohran Mamdani, citing “areas of principled disagreement.”

Those who have worked closely with Jeffries describe the 56-year-old former corporate lawyer as deeply cautious, guarded and strategic in how he presents his ideas in public. On the House floor, he is known to speak alliteratively in three-part lists.

As Democrats swept to victory, Jeffries taped an Instagram video wearing a black quarter-zip adorned with the U.S. House seal, declaring, “Donald Trump is shook right now. Pete Hegseth is shook right now. Todd Blanche, the so-called attorney general, is shook right now. And they should be.”

Behind the scenes, colleagues say, Jeffries prefers consensus over confrontation and punts on thorny issues, qualities that will force him to prove he’s equipped to wrangle nearly a dozen different groups that form the Democratic caucus.

He faced drama in the days leading up to the election when outgoing Rep. Haley Stevens (D., Mich.) endorsed former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers in her state’s high-profile Senate contest—only to watch Rogers lose handily to Democrat Abdul El-Sayed. Jeffries accused Stevens of “a terrible decision” that “blindsided everyone.”He pushed off any punishment for her defection until after the midterms.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal last week, Jeffries downplayed divisions within his party. He has since warmed publicly to Mamdani and has spoken to an array of incoming House Democrats, including most of the six who are tied to the DSA.

“We’ve worked very hard in order to actually maintain significant unity, which we’ve managed to do in the face of tremendous pressure from the outside to try to divide us,” Jeffries said. ‘Verbal Molotov cocktails’The Democrats’ unexpectedly wide margin means that noisy factions, such as the socialists, will pose less of a hindrance to Jeffries’s agenda, since he won’t need their votes to pass measures that are largely supported by the rest of the caucus.

“One bloc, on any one issue, isn’t going to be able to hold things up like we’ve seen on the Republican side, where for the last two years, three Republicans can shut down Congress,” said Rep. Brad Schneider (D., Ill.), who leads the New Democrat Coalition. “Hopefully, there won’t be folks…throwing verbal Molotov cocktails and trying to burn things down.”

As Democrats pursued a majority this year, Jeffries purposely resisted calls to offer a specific agenda—reminiscent of Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America” in 1994—because he wanted to avoid the potential for intraparty fights over policy during the campaign, according to people familiar with the planning.

Inside his campaign operation, Jeffries has told allies to think about Democratic control of the House in three separate categories: the first 100 hours, the first 100 days and the first year. The goal is to show House Democrats acting swiftly to address inflation and high costs as soon as they return to power.

“We want to hit the ground running and come out fast and furious so that it is clear this is a dramatic change in the direction for America,” Jeffries told a group of pastors and local activists during a campaign stop in Omaha last week.

He went on to tell the audience that they should expect “very early on” legislation to reverse cuts to Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits and legislation to extend the enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits that lapsed last year, measures on which Democrats are largely united. He said the House would move quickly to “end the Trump tariffs,” and “stop this war in Iran.”“Those are five things,” he said.

Jeffries in October with Cait Conley, who won her race for the House. (Paola Chapdelaine for WSJ) Supporters listened to Jeffries speak in Omaha last week. (Rebecca S. Gratz for WSJ) The Democratic leader also promised to target Trump’s defense secretary, telling the group, “I believe that in the majority, one of our first acts will be to run Pete Hegseth out of town.”Articles of impeachment have already been introduced against the defense secretary by Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, alleging Hegseth ignored Congress’s direction to withdraw U.S. forces from Iran and laws intended to minimize civilian casualties.

Jeffries said Wednesday that no member of the caucus had raised impeaching Trump with him. But members are divided between those who believe Trump has already committed impeachable offenses and should be held responsible, and those who worry the move would alienate swing voters and paint the new Congress as distracted and backward-looking.

Rep. Robert Garcia (D., Calif.), the incoming chairman of the House Oversight Committee, has outlined plans to investigate business dealings of Trump family members and key advisers, corporate donors to the White House ballroom and other issues.

After Trump named his new chief of staff, Garcia said Democrats on his committee “will continue to investigate Miller for his misconduct, and we will fight against his hateful policies in Congress and the courts.”Garcia added: “Stephen Miller should lawyer up.”

Jeffries’s economic plans are in alignment with Democratic leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) in the Senate, where Democrats will hold 54 seats and are awaiting calls on two close elections, potentially reaching 56 seats next year.

Over the past few months, lawmakers have been speaking with Jeffries to sway which legislative priorities will be top-of-ticket in January. Popular items that Jeffries hasn’t committed to—most notably Medicare for All—have been key asks by progressive members.

“He has been very cautious, in part, to keep a diverse caucus with him, but that does not work in a moment when the country is desperate for real bold leadership,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D., Wash.), a leader in the progressive caucus.

She criticized Jeffries for demurring on her Medicare for All bill, which he once supported. “He can be at the front of that and I hope he is, otherwise it will turn into a fight,” she said. Trump foil Jeffries grew up in Brooklyn’s politically influential Cornerstone Baptist Church and got his start in the New York state assembly.

He clinched an open House of Representatives seat in 2012. Entering Congress as a 42-year-old freshman, Jeffries pushed for criminal justice reform and teamed with Republicans to overhaul federal prisons and help artists fight copyright disputes.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus moved quickly to elevate him, and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) eventually took him under her wing. He gravitated toward roles as a messenger, taking on policy and communications jobs within the caucus.

Rep. James Clyburn hugged Jeffries in the House chamber in 2023. (Alex Brandon/Associated Press) Jeffries with former Speaker Nancy Pelosi in 2023.

“I can remember saying to Jim Clyburn when I was caucus chair, the first time he got up and spoke before the caucus, I said, ‘Jim…that’s going to be the first Black speaker of the House,’” said outgoing Rep. John Larson of Connecticut, describing his conversation with Clyburn, then a high-ranking Black House leader. “You could see that everybody in the room was going, ‘Wow, he’s different.’”The fight that raised Jeffries’s profile came in 2018 when he defied calls from leading Democrats to oppose the prison-overhaul First Step Act, which aimed to reduce the prison population. In a seven-page letter, he bashed Democratic colleagues, painting opposition to the bipartisan bill as unrealistic.

On the floor, more than two-thirds of Democrats stood behind him to pass the bill, the final version of which Trump later signed into law.

As Jeffries has grown in stature, he has positioned himself as one of Trump’s biggest foils in the House while serving as a ballast for the party’s scattered demands. Jeffries with President Trump at the inauguration in January 2025.

Jeffries delivering the longest floor speech in the House chamber in 2025. (Rod Lamkey/Associated Press) Rank-and-file House Democrats give Jeffries credit for maintaining unity during the lengthy 2025 federal government shutdown, noting that he was adamant that the caucus make the fight about healthcare benefits. He held his caucus together, while Schumer took heavy criticism as he struggled to keep his Senate colleagues on the same page. Jeffries “was very disciplined on that,” said Rep. Madeleine Dean (D., Pa.).

In the fall of 2025, Jeffries had his first—and only—Oval Office encounter with Trump, who memorialized it by posting memes that mocked Jeffries with a fake sombrero and mustache. During a rally with Democrats on the House steps, Jeffries called the video racist, warning Trump, “when I’m back in the Oval Office, say it to my face.”

Jeffries has worked to protect his image by sidestepping political hot potatoes rather than risk a burn. When the House voted on whether to cut aid to Israel this year, Jeffries and his leadership team opted not to try to influence votes to swing a particular way even as some members looked for guidance.

A longtime recipient of campaign donations from Aipac, a top Israeli-American lobbying group, Jeffries voted against the amendment led by Massie that aimed to slash Israel aid, while Rep. Katherine Clark (D., Mass.), the incoming House majority leader and Jeffries’s No. 2, voted for the cuts. About 48% of Democrats voted to cut the aid package, putting Jeffries out of step with a growing faction of the party that is using support for Israel as a test for candidates.

“He’s gonna have to reset completely the relationship with Aipac” and Israel, said Jayapal. “Otherwise, it’s gonna continue to be a problem for our Democratic base to have trust in him.”Jeffries on election night. (André Chung for WSJ) Jeffries argued the amendment was too broad and would impact humanitarian efforts and refugee resettlement, while still arguing that there is a need for a “major reset” and that Israel has “severely damaged its standing in the U.S.”Pelosi’s heavy hand Some progressives have questioned if Jeffries can manage competing demands and factions—and fights—in a speakership role that demands transactions, organization and swift decisions. Pelosi, who served two stints as speaker during the Trump and Biden presidencies, was known for having a heavy hand.

Jeffries has informal chats with Pelosi on the House floor or by phone, or has arranged meetings every few months, according to a Democrat familiar with their exchanges, who noted that the speaker emerita, who is retiring from her California seat after this term, doesn’t offer unsolicited advice.

DSA-linked freshmen still plan to pressure Jeffries in discussions on speakership votes. Rabb said Jeffries will still have to ask for his vote, and in that conversation he will need to tell Rabb he has an ear to the populist agenda and the cohorts that boosted Democrats to their large majority, including Black women and young voters. “I’m nobody’s rubber stamp,” Rabb said.

Word of the socialists’ plan to push for their agenda drew fire from centrist members before the election. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D., Texas) said his cohort, the centrist Blue Dogs, could easily exercise similar leverage, but said the blocs should draw a lesson from how such moves by GOP factions undermined former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Mike Johnson, the current speaker.

“It’s a mistake,” Cuellar said. “They weakened McCarthy. They weakened Johnson, and we’re smarter than that.”

Former Rep. Steve Israel of New York, a Jeffries ally, said the incoming speaker was up to the task of holding his caucus together.

“The way he became Democratic leader and now soon to be speaker of the House was by listening to members and sifting through their often conflicting desires and priorities and building a coalition—that’s hard to do,” Israel said. “He has the advantage of a much larger margin than I think most people anticipated.”

Even before Stevens endorsed the Republican candidate, Jeffries was faced with how to handle members who buck the Democrats’ agenda. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D., Wash.), who won re-election, and retiring Rep. Jared Golden (D., Maine)—both centrists—voted with Republicans to advance a rule package in September to support a bill protecting lobster fishing.

But the vote also allowed the GOP to move forward with a resolution condemning socialism that was designed to embarrass Democrats.

Jeffries called it a breach of trust and argued that their actions warranted a response—but he has yet to give one. “We’ll have a family discussion,” he said when asked how he would resolve the issue in the interview during his Omaha campaign stop.