Former Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), in an interview with Axios on Friday, declined to commit to voting for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) as speaker if she wins back her old House seat.
Why it matters: Bush joins dozens of candidates — particularly Democratic Socialists of America members and their allies — who are stopping short of committing to a Jeffries speakership.
- Even Congress' most left-wing members have told Axios they expect Jeffries to get the speaker's gavel if Democrats take the majority — mainly because nobody in the caucus would dare challenge him.
- But many progressives vying for House seats have said they are not satisfied with Jeffries' leadership and signaled that, at the very least, they are not going to give something for nothing.
What they're saying: "The leader conversation is not anywhere near anything I'm thinking on right now," Bush said when asked if she would vote for Jeffries in 2027.
- Bush added that she is "making sure I get what's needed for my community on the ground because I have an incumbent who is not delivering for St. Louis," reiterating that the speaker vote is "not even something that I'm thinking about."
- The former congresswoman voted for Jeffries on the 15 speaker ballots in January 2023 and the additional four ballots later that October — as did all other Democrats serving at the time.
Now she has harsher words for Democratic leadership, telling Axios, "We have an administration that is causing destruction every single day on our communities, and we are not meeting the moment."
- "The moment has not been met. They have not learned their lesson. The Trump administration has not learned, 'don't touch our communities.' What they've learned is, 'you've got this,'" she added.
- Bush said that she was "flipping over table by table last time" she was in office, but that, if she is elected again, "it's time to flip over two tables at a time."
Catch up quick: Bush served two terms in the House after defeating longtime Rep. Lacy Clay (D-Mo.) in a 2020 primary challenge to his left.
State of play: Bush is part of a sizable cohort of progressives who are running credible, well-funded campaigns to unseat more moderate or establishment-aligned House Democratic incumbents.
- Several have already won their races, most recently Darializa Avila Chevalier and Brad Lander, who defeated Reps. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) and Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), respectively, in primaries on Tuesday.
- Supporters of another progressive New York primary winner, Claire Valdez, chanted "you're next" during her election night party when a Jeffries TV appearance came on.
- Bush told Axios that, in deciding how to vote for speaker, she will look to this group "as they're making the decision about what happens next with that, just really seeing what they're saying."
Yes, but: Not all of these progressives are positioning themselves as skeptics of the House Democratic leader — at least when it comes to voting for him as speaker.
- Lander told Axios in an interview earlier this month that he looks forward to "electing Hakeem Jeffries as speaker, and to pushing him and Democratic leadership to move on the areas where the party is out of step with the base."
- "There's time to vote in unity, and the speaker's vote will be one of them, but then there also has to be some real pushing," he added.
The bottom line: Democratic leadership is projecting confidence that, no matter how many harsh words these left-wingers may have for the party establishment, their votes will be there when it counts.
- "I presume they're going to caucus with Democrats and they're going to help advance Democratic priorities, that's my assumption," Democratic Caucus chair Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) told reporters on Wednesday.
- Aguilar added that he is "not at all" concerned about progressives replicating the right-wing House Freedom Caucus' antics from 2023.
