Shock Defections Challenge Top Democrat Hakeem Jeffries

WASHINGTON—The surprise defections of two Democrats on a Republican procedural vote has sparked soul-searching in the party and raised new questions about whether Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries—the possible next House speaker—has the muscle to keep members in line.

House Democrats were stunned when Reps. Jared Golden (D., Maine) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D., Wash.), two centrist members, voted this week to narrowly advance a rules package by a 210-208 tally. That allowed Republicans to then move forward on a series of votes, including a resolution condemning socialism that was designed to embarrass Democrats. Members of the minority party rarely help the majority party pass such rules.

The episode provides an early test of the challenges facing Jeffries and his leadership team in the next Congress if Democrats win back the majority. The votes showed that problems could potentially pop in the center of the caucus, alongside anticipated blowups on the left wing, and followed a dust-up over Jeffries’s recent private meeting with Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law.

Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, a Jeffries ally and the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, aired his frustration after the defections. “I’m disappointed and angry about what happened,” McGovern said. “I didn’t get a heads-up.”

“I think the message is getting out that a lot of members are frustrated and angry,” he said.

The incident set off a round of recriminations within the Democratic caucus. Jeffries and top lieutenants Reps. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts and Pete Aguilar of California released a statement saying the decision to join with Republicans “to pass a procedural rule on the brink of failing represents a significant breach of trust.”

The leaders said it “necessitates a serious response” and asked a Democratic panel to consider the consequences. That panel is discussing potential changes within the caucus, according to people familiar with the talks, including requiring Democratic members to pay their full annual dues to their campaign arm or not side with Republicans on procedural votes to remain in good standing in the party. Democrats took no immediate action against the two lawmakers.

Jeffries’s supporters pointed to his success in keeping Democrats together during a lengthy government shutdown in the fall of 2025 and unifying the caucus against Trump’s sweeping $3.4 trillion “big, beautiful” tax-and-spending law. Also, all Democrats joined with a handful of Republicans to force a vote on releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Jeffries said Thursday he had a “productive, forward-looking conversation” with Gluesenkamp Perez and called her “an important member” of the caucus. Asked if she would be punished, Jeffries said the caucus was “engaging in a family discussion about how we all move forward together.”

Jeffries had raised eyebrows by how he initially responded to questions about the defections. “You’ll have to talk to Katherine,” he told reporters Tuesday, in a reference to Clark, who as party whip is in charge of vote counting for House Democrats.

Democrats need a net gain of three seats to win back the House, putting Jeffries in a strong position to become the nation’s first Black speaker. But he will have to balance demands from centrist and establishment lawmakers with an assertive left wing, which is set to include a group of freshman Democrats who have ties to the Democratic Socialists of America.

Jeffries could be forced to wrestle with holdouts in much the same way current House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) has at times struggled to navigate GOP infighting, with hard-line lawmakers routinely threatening to sink rule votes.

The two centrist defectors defended their votes. Golden, who is retiring, and Gluesenkamp Perez, who represents a tossup district in southwest Washington state, are both “blue dog” members from districts that voted for Trump in 2024.

Golden said the Republican rule needed to pass in order for the House to take up his bill designed to protect lobstermen from new regulations, which then was approved in a vote later in the day. He said he would “never have an issue with any of my colleagues doing what they’ve got to do for the people they represent.”

Gluesenkamp Perez, who has been trying to rein in the sea lion population in her district, said in a statement that you “don’t get effective environmentalism without the input of people who make their livelihoods and heritage on the water—whether we’re talking about lobsters or sea lions.” In an interview with journalist Natalie Fertig, Golden said Gluesenkamp Perez voted for the rule as a favor to him. She didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D., Wash.), the former head of the influential progressive caucus, said Jeffries will continue to face tests with members who have strongly held positions. When she led the progressives, they took hard lines with party leaders, notably on the Build Back Better spending package during the Biden administration.

“The speaker has to be able to deliver the votes,” she said, by keeping members feeling united and working to “minimize the numbers of people that move in a different direction.”

Members of the progressive caucus called a meeting to discuss the potential rule changes in the party, according to people familiar with the meeting.

Voting to pass a rule led by the opposition party is rare in Congress. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), who served as a powerful House speaker known for maintaining unity, told reporters, “we didn’t even consider that anybody would do that,” adding that she was “disappointed” the two House Democrats would support the rule.

But Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R., Pa.), a co-chair of the Problem Solvers Caucus who faces a tough re-election campaign, said on X that when “two courageous individuals are facing ‘consequences’ for simply doing their job and representing their constituents who sent them to Congress, it is officially past time to abolish the broken two-party cult system.”