House Democrats just made an important investment in their future, electing Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York as Democratic caucus chairman. The vote was close, 123-113.
Jeffries is relatively young at 48 and already successful as one of the main backers of the prison reform bill that easily passed the House earlier this year. Many see the New Yorker as a someday successor to presumptive Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Just by winning on Wednesday, Jeffries robbed Republicans of a prime opportunity. As Mark Caputo of Politico notes, the GOP would have loved to lambast his opponent, Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif.
Ever quotable and always extreme, Lee would have been a veritable gift to Republicans and nonstop fodder for “Fox and Friends.” While newcomers like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., push a softer, re-branded socialism, Lee actually has a thing for the strongmen who enforce the ideology.
When Fidel Castro died, Lee said she “was very sad for the Cuban people.” The two had met many times during her more than 20 visits to the island. Unaware or unconcerned with his atrocities, she praised Castro for leading “a revolution in Cuba that led social improvements for his people.”
Lee isn’t just talk either. While Venezuelans starve thanks to socialism, she has been fighting for the author of the suffering, President Nicolas Maduro. During the Obama administration, Lee called on the president to rescind sanctions placed because Maduro arrested political opponents. More recently, Lee has lobbied hard against banning Venezuelan oil imports.
A Castro-cheerleader and Maduro-acolyte wouldn’t play well in a key 2020 swing state like Florida. Voters there are well aware of the failures of South American socialism.
But she presented a bigger problem. If Lee won and Jeffries lost, Republicans could attack Democrats for electing a socialist sympathizer to leadership.
