A new socialist bloc could test Jeffries from Day 1

Democratic socialists have already made huge waves this cycle by knocking off a handful of House incumbents on their way to Washington. The big question now gripping the party is how disruptive they’ll be when they get here.

“We don’t know how they will be part of the team,” Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) said. “We hope they’ll be part of the team, but we don’t know.”

The answer to that question could play an outsized role not only in steering the Democrats’ legislative agenda in the next Congress, when they’re favored to control the lower chamber, but also in molding the party’s image heading into the 2028 elections, when they’re hoping to seize the White House after four years under Trump.

A handful of incoming liberals backed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are vowing to press Democratic leaders to champion far-left policies — like “Medicare for All” and cutting aid to Israel. Some are already calling for the president’s impeachment.

They’ve hammered their own party for what they see as an abandonment of progressive ideals and a soft-glove approach to President Trump’s second term.

That agenda could create headaches for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), who’s in line to become Speaker if the House flips, and present difficult votes for centrist front-runners who are crucial to winning and retaining a Democratic majority. The wildcard remains, however, how much sway the DSA bloc will have — and how hard it intends to push in demanding action on its liberal wish list.

Heading into the elections, the Democratic anxieties about what might happen when the democratic socialists arrive are already bubbling up.

“The main question is: What is it like when we have these people here? Do they try to create problems?” said one House aide. “Do they say stuff that all our members get asked about? … We’re not super enthusiastic about [that].”

Democratic socialists are nothing new to Capitol Hill. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) have carried that torch in the Capitol for years. But the stunning victory by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani last year has given the movement a new shot in the arm, and his endorsement of several DSA House candidates helped propel them to victory in primaries earlier this year.

The DSA candidates hail from all corners of the country, including Michigan, where state Rep. Donavan McKinney defeated Rep. Shri Thanedar; Colorado, where Melat Kiros bumped off Rep. Dianna DeGette; and New York, where Darializa Avila Chevalier toppled Rep. Adriano Espaillat and Rep. Dan Goldman was ousted by former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, a former DSA member.

What unites them is a belief that Democrats on Capitol Hill haven’t fought hard enough for their traditional values and interests.

Still, even within the DSA there are conflicting sentiments about how hard the incoming socialists should push Jeffries and his leadership team. On one side of that debate are the progressives, who see their remarkable success in the primary elections as an opportunity to shake up Washington — even if it means battling their own party brass.

“There’s no time like the present,” said one DSA member, who requested anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic. “This is our year, and we’ve gotten the attention we need thus far. It would be foolish to let go once we actually get to Capitol Hill. Voters are asking for change, that’s the biggest takeaway of this cycle. They want changes in how we govern and how we do business.”

At the same time, a second DSA member predicted there wouldn’t be much bomb-throwing from that flank of the party.

“I don’t want DSA to become a party of no,” the member said. “It does get you gains in the short term, but it’s not a governing strategy.”

Nomiki Konst, a progressive strategist who is an inactive member of the DSA, predicted that most of the left in the caucus are going to side with Jeffries. She pointed to the contentious early days of Ocasio-Cortez, another democratic socialist who was first elected in 2018, and her struggles to push then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Now, Konst said, the new DSA congressional members “have learned the lessons” of Ocasio-Cortez.

Still, she added, “You have a runway in the beginning and you should absolutely put some pressure on him [Jeffries] to be on certain committees and push on popular issues like Medicare for All.”

Whatever the case, the incoming democratic socialists are sure to create challenges for Jeffries and other Democratic leaders, who will face the tricky task of balancing the competing interests of an ideologically diverse party.

On one hand, Jeffries will want to cater to base voters with bold legislation expanding healthcare benefits, strengthening environmental protections and reining in Trump’s deportation machine. On the other hand, leadership will have to tread carefully to ensure that those proposals don’t tip so far to the left that they harm the chances of centrist Democrats in battleground districts, where the House majority is won and lost.

“The first priority for House Democrats when they get the majority will be to unify around a strategy to keep it. That means focusing on consensus that reflects Democratic vision and values while also protecting members facing tough reelections in purple districts,” said former Rep. Steve Israel (N.Y.), who once led the House Democrats’ campaign arm.

“Building that unity won’t be easy, but I think Hakeem Jeffries is made for this moment,” he added. “He’s kept everyone together in the minority and he has the skill and leadership to do it in the majority.”

How the saga plays out will likely depend heavily on how many seats Democrats pick up in the midterms. If there’s a huge blue wave, then Jeffries and other party leaders will have a comfortable cushion to pursue their agenda without much fear that it will be derailed by defections from either end of the spectrum, socialists or centrists. Smaller gains, however, would leave party leaders with little wiggle room when they bring bills to the floor, lending much greater power to small blocs of lawmakers to demand action on their priorities.

Jeffries has largely held Democrats together under Trump’s second term, but there have been cracks in the armor, including two high-profile episodes in September when a pair of centrist Democrats hopped the aisle to advance the Republicans’ agenda, infuriating much of the party.

Beyer, the Virginia Democrat, said those defections could forecast trouble with the DSA lawmakers coming in next year — but the margins will be crucial.

“If we get 230 or 232 or something, much less so,” he said. “But if it’s 220?”

Those dynamics will get an early test run in the first week of January, when Jeffries will be seeking the Speaker’s gavel, and the DSA members — most of whom have not committed to supporting Jeffries — will have to decide how hard to flex their muscles. Again, the size of the Democratic majority could play a major factor.

“If we’re at 218, 219, 2020, then Jeffries would really have to buckle down,” said the House aide, “because every single person can throw him out of it just by being a no.”