A petition calling on House Democrats not to support House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries as the next Speaker has hit 500,000 signatures, according to its creator.
It follows the Democrats’ dramatic midterm election victory that saw the party flip both the Senate and the House of Representatives, which will lead to a new Senate Majority Leader and Speaker of the House.
The petition, which labels Jeffries part of the “Democratic establishment,” suggests Democratic leaders are likely to remain under pressure from their party’s left-wing over both personal and policy choices. It was created by Nicole Whitted, an author and Democratic supporting social media creator with over 210,000 followers on TikTok.
For those who don’t want to give newsweek a click: https://www.change.org/p/house-democrats-choose-a-new-speaker
Currently at 881,098 signatures, including mine now.
Close to a million signatures now!
This is becoming my copy pasta moment. But Hakeem Jeffries…let’s start with his charisma. His charisma is more akin to that of a Home Depot bag of paver sand. You search through the poorly stacked pile selecting the one with the least holes. Yet, despite that effort, it still spills it’s contents all over the cart on the way to the register. Not a good look. But useful if you are doing what he is good at doing. Laying the foundation for your country to get paved over by corporate donors.
If that does not speak for itself, then consider this. As a potential Speaker, Mr. Jeffries would face the immense challenge of uniting a fractured party that has not managed to maintain a large and diverse tent of voters since Debbie Wasserman Schultz declared Bernie a non-starter. Mr. Jeffries is simply not capable of standing firm in the face of political opposition. Don’t take my word for it. Perhaps, instead, the ever present consumer advocate Ralph Nader may sway you:
More introspection may lead you to ask yourself whether you are up to leading the House Democrats in their immense and immediate tasks of policy and program restorations and adopting our Constitution’s mandated Congressional independence from the Presidency for the protection and advancement of the livelihoods, peace and freedoms of the American people. There is no indication that you are so willing and prepared. Unfortunately.
His record in Congress has not demonstrated the kind of bold, decisive leadership that the position of Speaker demands. Instead, he has often been seen as a cautious, moderate voice. Dare I say, a voice coming from a very real human (I swear) with a spine made of NeeDoh.
Let’s be frank. In times of crisis or when tough decisions must be made, the leader of the Democratic Party and Speaker of the House is not merely about personality. I understand that. Such positions require a deep understanding of the legislative process, the ability to negotiate, and the resilience to withstand the political pressures that come with the position. Jeffries has not consistently shown these traits in his career. For any informed observers, this must raise serious questions about his suitability for such a high-stakes role.
Finally, to convey my firm belief that Mr. Jeffries is not the right person for the leadership role come January, I paraphrase the amazing Forest Whitaker in his role as PFC Edward Garlick in “Good Morning Vietnam”
Hakeem Jeffries sucks the sweat off a dead man’s balls. I have no idea what that means, sir, but it seems very negative to me.
He made secretive deals with Jared Kushner
He’s a centrist in the hardest left house we’ve had in decades
He represents the Democratic elite that lost to Trump in 2024, ushering in the most damaging US presidency in living memory
Yeah, they should tabula rasa all of the old guard before moving forward.
And remember this little thing:
https://vger.to/lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/49344563
27 times different women have come forward and been ignored. The great orange one raped them.
As a part the change we need, Democrats need to move beyond the establishment. I signed it.
Jeffries says the agenda is not about “getting even”, what he’s really saying is he won’t allow any real accountability for criminals because they are fellow politicians. He’s clearly not fit for the job.
There is nothing in the rules that says the speaker has to be a member of the house, so I say we push for a speaker who will bring some accountability to the criminals throughout our government and demand that Democrats elect Jack Smith as Speaker of the House.
Let’s have Jon Stewart as Speaker of the House.
Good point! Does the law say that the Speaker has to be a member of the House?
The constitution does not explicitly say that the Speaker must be a member of congress. However, the Speaker always has been one.
800,000 now
Please, if you are in the US, contact your senators and representatives to urge them to choose better leaders than these milquetoast corporate dems.
What if my senators and representatives are milquetoast corporate dems? Seriously though, there’s only a handful of Dem politicians who don’t take AIPAC money. I don’t think we’re going to get progressive leadership any time soon.
I hear you, I really truly do, but we have to keep pressing. This week has clearly proven that voting still matters and the power remains with the people. The only thing those corporate dems fear more than their corporate masters is the thought of having to find another job. Put the pressure on them and hold them to account. We still have the power, we just have to stay united and use it.
These soft democratic leaders already showed us who they are, and I’m not interested. Get the Pelosi generation tf on out of here. Them and their stupid stock trading and dumb shit kneeling and wishy wishy nonsense.
He needs to go. Schumer too. They should no longer be allowed to “lead” us back to hell. i.e. trump.
Get rid of him and get rid of Schumer. Get rid of anyone who supports Israel in their genocide and their apartheid state.
Get rid
Every two years there is a vote for leadership…
Mainstream media immediately jumped on those two shitbirds as the default, but they have absolutely zero claim.
They don’t reflect the values of Dem voters, and they’re both shitty leaders. There is zero reason to give them leadership, or to keep determining committee chairs based solely off seniority.
People are so used to how neoliberals ran shit for 30 years, they forget there is absolutely nothing making the next congress follow those bullshit traditions.
If you’re going to do one thing, contact your Rep and Senator and tell them to change leadership. It’ll carry more weight than a change.org petition.
(Yes, I know that’s technically two things).
Yep - already sent this to my rep:
Now that the democratic party will have a majority in both houses of Congress, I and your constituents, along with democrats across the country, demand an end to the lackluster democratic leadership currently in place. We require new majority leaders that will actually hold Trump and his allies responsible for the many crimes that they have committed against this country and others worldwide. Please lend your support to candidates that will support action against this criminal behavior. Justice is what will ultimately help our nation to heal, not “moving on” or ignoring what has happened.
Are you sending it to your current rep, or the one that just got elected? Same for senator?
I’m just not sure the best way to reach out to a politician-elect if they haven’t even taken office yet
No harm in doing both. Sending an email is easy. Could take a little while for Congress freshmen to get their office communication systems set up.
Contact your representatives and sign the Change org petition. It shows public pressure and only takes a few minutes, so why not?
Because nobody cares about change.org petitions except the people who sign them.
Big brain move, convince Democrat members of Congress to sign the petition so they care about it and then they will pick a new speaker.
Now how do we convince them to sign it? Maybe to compel that signature we can put together some kind of petition…
I’m in Florida. I don’t have anyone I can contact.
(In sorry, we tried.)
I sent angry voicemails to all of my representatives before the midterms. My capacity for action has been met for a bit. I do not have room in my brain for more political action right now.
Plus, I gave my info to the local election people so I could volunteer for elections next go around. I’m doing my part.
I was initially writing a reply about how my district’s incumbent Republican unfortunately won by less than a percent but that I’m with y’all in spirit, and I looked it up to verify that the difference hadn’t changed. Fuck me, I missed that we elected who will now be my first Democrat House Representative. First Democrat to represent the district covering my hometown since the 30s lmao. So, thanks for the reminder to check the results after the initial disappointment, lol.
Congrats! And put in your name to phone bank for 'em next time!
Big fan of https://5calls.org/.
Even if I’m calling about something that is not a listed topic. In that case, I’ll
- click on the first topic and get the phone numbers off of it for the House rep
- hit Skip when I’m done instead of Made Contact or Voicemail. This, I think, avoids counting it as a contact on that specific topic, so I don’t mess up their numbers.
- repeat steps 1 and 2 for both Senators.
In other words, I use their site and/or app (Apple here, Android here) to just spoonfeed me the phone numbers of my representatives. So easy, less friction, and the easy habits get kept.
Another option is to write down the numbers in your contacts once, naming them something like
111111 HouseRepName,111111 Senator1,111111 Senator 2to ensure they stay together and at the top of your contact list, and then run down the list calling.(Listing for onlookers, I know you probably know!)
Mine are both Republicans and have no sway in it.
The petition for Jeffries to not be speaker already has more than 5x as many votes as Jeffries had to get elected
The House Speaker should be AOC. Jeffries will hinder the Democrats for 2028.
