Hakeem Sekou Jeffries is an American politician and attorney born on August 4, 1970, at Brooklyn Hospital Center in Downtown Brooklyn and raised in the Crown Heights neighborhood. He graduated from Midwood High School, earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science with honors from Binghamton University in 1992, a Master of Public Policy from Georgetown University in 1994, and a Juris Doctor magna cum laude from New York University School of Law in 1997, where he served on the NYU Law Review and delivered the student address at Convocation. After clerking for Judge Harold Baer Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, he joined Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison, where he practiced from 1998 to 2004. He then became a corporate litigator for Viacom and CBS, where he worked on the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy. He was elected to the New York State Assembly in 2006, serving three terms through 2012 and co-sponsoring a stop and frisk database reform bill signed by Governor Paterson in 2010.
Jeffries won the 2012 Democratic primary for New York's 8th congressional district against City Councilman Charles Barron with 72 percent of the vote and was sworn into the 113th Congress on January 3, 2013. In his early terms he served on the Budget and Judiciary committees and became known for bipartisan work including co-sponsoring the First Step Act with Representative Doug Collins, a criminal justice reform bill signed into law by President Trump in December 2018 that eased mandatory minimum sentences and ended the shackling of women inmates during childbirth, and co-sponsoring the Music Modernization Act of 2018. In November 2018, he defeated Barbara Lee to become Chair of the House Democratic Caucus, the fifth ranking position in Democratic leadership, a role he held from 2019 to 2023. He served as one of seven House impeachment managers during Trump's first Senate trial in January 2020.
In November 2022, with outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi's endorsement, Jeffries was unanimously elected House Democratic Leader, becoming the first African American to lead a party caucus in either chamber of Congress. As minority leader during the 118th Congress he effectively anchored a bipartisan governing coalition, helping pass government funding packages, the April 2024 foreign aid supplemental for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, and tabling Marjorie Taylor Greene's motion to vacate Speaker Johnson in May 2024. On July 3, 2025, he used his magic minute to speak for eight hours and 44 minutes in opposition to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, breaking Kevin McCarthy's record. He is married to Kennisandra Arciniegas Jeffries, a social worker, and they live in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, with their two sons.
Mainstream Liberal
Committee Assignments
Caucus Memberships
Achievements
- Elected House Democratic Leader in November 2022 without opposition after Nancy Pelosi's retirement from leadership, becoming the first African American to lead a party caucus in either chamber of Congress, and has since been unanimously renominated by House Democrats in every subsequent leadership election.
- Co-sponsored the First Step Act with Republican Representative Doug Collins in 2018, the most significant federal criminal justice reform in a generation, which eased mandatory minimum sentences, expanded early release programs, and ended the shackling of incarcerated women during childbirth. President Trump signed it into law in December 2018.
- Anchored a bipartisan governing coalition during the 118th Congress that passed two government funding packages, the April 2024 Ukraine and Israel and Taiwan foreign aid supplemental, the FAA Reauthorization Act, and a FISA reauthorization, leading House Democrats to function, in the words of the Associated Press, as if they were in the majority while Republicans held the chamber.
- On July 3, 2025, delivered an eight hour and 44 minute floor speech in opposition to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act using his magic minute, breaking the previous record held by Kevin McCarthy. The speech cited his background as the son of a veteran, invoked Martin Luther King Jr., and read from Matthew 25, drawing national attention to the Democratic case against the Republican budget package.
Controversies
- Jeffries has received over $1 million in AIPAC affiliated contributions as of 2025, making him one of the top recipients of pro Israel funding in the House Democratic caucus. His refusal to call for a ceasefire in Gaza in November 2023 and his subsequent statements crediting Israeli aid facilitation while citing Hamas obstruction have drawn sustained criticism from progressive members of his caucus and sparked primary challenges against allied incumbents by left wing challengers.
- While in college at Binghamton University, Jeffries wrote an editorial defending his uncle, Leonard Jeffries, a former City College professor who made controversial antisemitic and racially charged statements, when his uncle was invited to speak on campus. He has said he only has a vague recollection of the editorial and has consistently stated he does not share his uncle's views, but the episode is periodically raised by critics and political opponents.
- In June 2024, Jeffries was reported by Politico to have privately raised concerns with New York Governor Kathy Hochul that contributed to her decision to indefinitely pause the implementation of congestion pricing in New York City, a move that environmental advocates and transit officials called a major setback for climate and transportation infrastructure goals. Jeffries later said the pause was a reasonable thing to do at that moment, a position that put him at odds with much of the progressive wing of the New York delegation.
- Progressive critics and Wall Street aligned donors have simultaneously pulled at Jeffries's coalition from both directions: left wing members of the caucus have objected to his fundraising from BlackRock, Apollo Global Management, and major financial institutions, while more centrist and pro business Democrats have at times pushed back against his willingness to coordinate with the progressive wing on floor strategy and procedural votes.
Top Donors
| Donor | Total | Individuals | PACs |
|---|---|---|---|
| American Israel Public Affairs Cmte | $866,550 | $856,550 | $10,000 |
| BlackRock Inc | $74,275 | $74,275 | $0 |
| Apollo Global Management | $70,200 | $70,200 | $0 |
| MetLife Inc | $68,511 | $61,011 | $7,500 |
| Lockheed Martin | $63,538 | $53,538 | $10,000 |
The organizations themselves cannot donate; totals reflect contributions from individuals and PACs affiliated with each entity.
Recent Elections
2018 General Election (NY-8)
Won D +88.9%| Candidate | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|
| [D]Hakeem Jeffries (incumbent)✓ Winner | 180,376 | 94.16% |
| [R]Ernest Johnson | 9,997 | 5.22% |
2020 General Election (NY-8)
Won D +69.6%| Candidate | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|
| [D]Hakeem Jeffries (incumbent)✓ Winner | 234,933 | 84.76% |
| [R]Garfield Wallace | 42,007 | 15.16% |
2022 General Election (NY-8)
Won D +43.4%| Candidate | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|
| [D]Hakeem Jeffries (incumbent)✓ Winner | 99,079 | 71.63% |
| [R]Yuri Dashevsky | 39,060 | 28.24% |
2024 General Election (NY-8)
Won D +50.6%| Candidate | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|
| [D]Hakeem Jeffries (incumbent)✓ Winner | 168,036 | 75.08% |
| [R]John J. Delaney | 54,863 | 24.51% |
New York uses a traditional partisan primary and general election system. NY-8 is anchored in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, covering neighborhoods including Crown Heights, Flatbush, Canarsie, East New York, Brownsville, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and Borough Park, and is one of the most heavily Democratic districts in the country.