Rep. Hakeem Jeffries describes next steps after VA redistricting ruling: 'Our fight is not over'

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May 9, 2026 #HakeemJeffries #Virginia #Politics

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries describes next steps after VA redistricting ruling: "Our fight is not over" MS NOW: My Source for News, Opinion, and the World. » Subscribe to MS NOW:

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2 seconds

DECISION TO BLOCK THE STATE'S NEWLY DRAWN AND VOTER APPROVED CONGRESSIONAL MAP, THE DEMOCRATIC HOUSE LEADER, HOUSE MINORITY LEADER, HAKIM JEFFREY SAYS,

9 seconds

QUOTE, OVER 3 MILLION VIRGINIA CITIZENS CAST THEIR VOTES IN A FREE AND FAIR ELECTION YET THE STATE SUPREME COURT HAS CHOSEN TO INVALIDATE THEIR VOICE, DISENFRANCHISE THEM AND

18 seconds

VIOLATE THEIR DUE PROCESS RIGHTS.

21 seconds

THE DECISION TO OVERTURN AN ENTIRE ELECTION IS AN UNPRECEDENTED AND UNDEMOCRATIC ACTION THAT CANNOT STAND MAGA REPUBLICANS HAVE ADOPTED

29 seconds

VOTER SUPPRESSION AS A STRATEGY AS DEMOCRATIC ACROSS THE AMERICAN SOUTH WE

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ARE EXPLORING ALL OPTIONS TO overturned this shocking decision.

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No matter what it takes, House Democrats will win in November so we can help rescue this nation from the extremism being unleashed by Donald Trump and Republicans.

55 seconds

Our fight is not over. We are JUST GETTING STARTED, AND QUOTE.

59 seconds

THE DEMOCRATIC HOUSE MINORITY LEADER HAKIM JEFFRIES OF NEW YORK JOINS ME NOW. CONGRESSMAN, THANK YOU FOR BEING WITH US. LET ME ASK YOU THIS.

1 minute, 7 seconds

AT SOME POINT, THE POLLING INDICATES THE LIKELIHOOD THAT DEMOCRATS WILL TAKE THE HOUSE IN NOVEMBER,

1 minute, 15 seconds

HISTORY SUGGESTS THE LIKELIHOOD THAT WILL HAPPEN.

1 minute, 19 seconds

ARE YOU A LITTLE WORRIED THAT THIS NUTTY, OUT-of CONTROL, GERRYMANDERING ACTUALLY COMPROMISES THAT POSSIBILITY?

1 minute, 28 seconds

NO, WE'RE GOING TO WIN BACK THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES IN NOVEMBER. WE ARE ONLY THREE SEATS SHORT. WE HISTORICALLY OVERPERFORMED IN NOVEMBER.

1 minute, 35 seconds

and that's one of the reasons why Republicans are in panic mode.

1 minute, 39 seconds

Remember, Ali, when we took the House back in 2018, we were 24 seats short. We crossed over that hurdle and, in fact,

1 minute, 48 seconds

in 2018 we flipped a total of 40 seats.

1 minute, 50 seconds

So, we're going to take back control of the House of Representatives.

1 minute, 53 seconds

We're going to continue to make clear to the American people that we will lower their high cost of living,

1 minute, 58 seconds

fix a broken health care system and clean up the corruption that we're seeing in the country, in the Congress,

2 minutes, 4 seconds

certainly with the Supreme Court and deal with the most corrupt administration in American history.

2 minutes, 9 seconds

Now we're going to need nationwide judicial reform. We're going to need nationwide electoral reform.

2 minutes, 15 seconds

We're going to need nationwide campaign finance reform, which is why we have to take the House back, take the Senate back,

2 minutes, 23 seconds

keep pressing forward and then in 2028, take the presidency back as well.

2 minutes, 27 seconds

So I'm going to talk to you about those three areas of reform that you suggest.

2 minutes, 30 seconds

You heard Elie Mestal saying he puts judicial reform at the top of that, but I want to talk about something else.

2 minutes, 34 seconds

Of those things you say you're going to talk to people and win their votes over based on their cost of living and their health care.

2 minutes, 41 seconds

That message is being very clearly put forward by an increasing number of progressive candidates who are winning primaries.

2 minutes, 49 seconds

That sometimes feels out of sync with both the Democratic Party and who House leadership wants to run in primary elections.

2 minutes, 58 seconds

And you face some criticism for this. Where are you on this?

3 minutes, 1 second

Because the people winning elections right now tend to be putting that message forward very clearly.

3 minutes, 9 seconds

Well, since January of 2025 in my first remarks to the new Congress,

3 minutes, 14 seconds

we made clear that we're going to center lowering the high cost of living.

3 minutes, 19 seconds

America is far too expensive IT'S A BELIEF OF DEMOCRATS IN THE HOUSE.

3 minutes, 21 seconds

PEOPLE ARE WORKING HARD, THEY ARE PLAYING BY THE RULES AND THEY CAN'T THRIVE, THEY CAN BARELY SURVIVE.

3 minutes, 26 seconds

THAT'S A UNIVERSALLY AND DEMOCRATS AND DEMOCRATS HELD BELIEF AMONGST DEMOCRATS IN THE HOUSE ACROSS THE IDEOLOGICAL SPECTRUM FROM PROGRESSIVES TO NEW DEMS WE'VE SEEN ACROSS THE COUNTRY,

3 minutes, 36 seconds

CONSECUTIVE MONTHS, TO BLUE DOGS AND ALL POINTS IN BETWEEN. WHAT WE'VE SEEN ACROSS THE COUNTRY,

3 minutes, 40 seconds

WE'VE NOW WON ELECTIONS FOR 16 CONSECUTIVE COUPLE OF MONTHS, INCLUDING IN PLACES LIKE NEW JERSEY WHERE GOVERNOR MIKEY CHERYL RAN ON

3 minutes, 49 seconds

AFFORDABILITY. THE NEW YORK CITY DEMOCRATIC POLITICS, IN VIRGINIA,

3 minutes, 56 seconds

ABIGAIL SPAMBERGER RAN AND WON ON AFFORDABILITY. THIS IS A UNIVERSALLY HELD BELIEF.

4 minutes

I DON'T GET INVOLVED IN WE'LL SEE WHO EMERGES, BUT THE FOCUS HAS GOT TO BE ON WINNING IN NOVEMBER AND THAT'S WHAT WE INTEND TO DO.

4 minutes, 12 seconds

WHAT ABOUT NON-OPEN-SEAT PRIMARIES,

4 minutes, 14 seconds

CHALLENGES FROM PROGRESSIVES THE PEOPLE WHO SAY THAT ESTABLISHMENT DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP HAS NOT MOVED FAST ENOUGH AND HARD ENOUGH.

4 minutes, 23 seconds

BUT WE'RE GOING TO WE WILL CONTINUE TO DEFEND EVERY SINGLE HOUSE INCUMBENT.

4 minutes, 30 seconds

ULTIMATELY, HOWEVER, IT'S GOING TO BE UP TO THE PEOPLE AND THAT'S THE REALITY OF SERVING IN THE HOUSE OF PEOPLE OF THE PEOPLE OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

4 minutes, 36 seconds

THE INSTITUTION, THE FRAMER IS DESIGNED TO BE CLOSEST TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. WE HAVE ONLY TWO YEAR EMPLOYMENT CONTRACTS.

4 minutes, 42 seconds

WE'VE GOT TO GO BACK TO THE PEOPLE EVERY OTHER YEAR AND EVERYONE IS GOING TO HAVE TO MAKE THEIR CASE TO THE INDIVIDUALS THAT THEY'RE PRIVILEGED TO REPRESENT.

4 minutes, 49 seconds

AND THAT'S WHAT, YOU KNOW, THEY'LL CONTINUE TO DO.

4 minutes, 52 seconds

AND I'VE INDICATED WHETHER IT'S A PROGRESSIVE INCUMBENT, WHETHER IT'S A BLUE DOG, WHETHER IT'S A NEW DEM,

4 minutes, 57 seconds

I'M GOING TO SUPPORT MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS AND THEN WE ALL HAVE TO COME TOGETHER TO ACTUALLY PUSH BACK AGAINST THIS UNPRECEDENTED ATTACK ON OUR DEMOCRACY,

5 minutes, 7 seconds

UNPRECEDENTED ATTACK ON FREE AND UNFORTUNATELY UNFAIR ELECTIONS,

5 minutes, 11 seconds

AN UNPRECEDENTED ATTACK ON BLACK REPRESENTATION IN THE AMERICAN SOUTH AND ALL ACROSS THE COUNTRY WHICH IS WHAT THE SUPREME COURT'S DECISION IN THE SOUTH AND CALI HAS UNLEASED.

5 minutes, 21 seconds

LET'S TALK ABOUT THAT FOR A SECOND BECAUSE YOU AND I FROM NEW YORK,

5 minutes, 24 seconds

WE DON'T LIVE, THERE'S NOT A DAILY LIVED EXPERIENCE OF RECONSTRUCTION AND THE END of it and Jim Crow laws. In the South, there still is.

5 minutes, 32 seconds

Like people have either in recent memory or they still experience things like that.

5 minutes, 36 seconds

This is being described as like the end of RECONSTRUCTION. IT'S THAT SERIOUS.

5 minutes, 42 seconds

IT TOOK DECADES, SEVEN DECADES TO GET OUT OF THAT MESS AND GET BACK TO 1965.

5 minutes, 48 seconds

HOW DO YOU GET PEOPLE IN NEW YORK AND CALIFORNIA AND MINNEAPOLIS AND PLACES LIKE THAT TO THINK ABOUT THE FACT THAT THIS IS EVERYBODY'S FIGHT RIGHT NOW.

5 minutes, 55 seconds

THIS ISN'T JUST BLACK PEOPLE'S FIGHT. IT'S CERTAINLY EVERYBODY'S FIGHT.

6 minutes

LISTEN, DR. KING ONCE ELOQUENTLY MADE THE OBSERVATION THAT INJUSTICE ANYWHERE IS A THREAT

6 minutes, 13 seconds

THE AMERICAN JOURNEY HAS ALWAYS BEEN CHARACTERIZED BY MOMENTS OF PROGRESS,

6 minutes, 17 seconds

FOLLOWED BY MOMENTS GENERATIONS OF BACKLASH AND THEN A NEW GENERATION OF AMERICANS HAVE TO SHOW UP, STAND UP, SPEAK UP, FIGHT, GET INTO GOOD TROUBLE TO

6 minutes, 25 seconds

USHER IN AN ERA OF WE WENT FROM THE PROGRESS OF EMANCIPATION TO THE BACKLASH OF JIM CROW.

6 minutes, 32 seconds

THE PROGRESS OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT TO THE BACKLASH OF MASS INCARCERATION,

6 minutes, 37 seconds

THE PROGRESS OF EMANCIPATION WE ARE SEEING THIS BEHAVIOR THAT WE ARE SEEING COMING

6 minutes, 46 seconds

OUT OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES TO THROW THE AMERICAN SOUTH BACK INTO THE JIM CROW ERA.

6 minutes, 53 seconds

So it's going to take an all-hands-on-deck effort,

6 minutes, 55 seconds

and everybody has a stake in preserving a multiracial democracy as part of the effort to preserve

7 minutes, 4 seconds

American exceptionalism as we move forward into our next 250 years.

7 minutes, 9 seconds

There's nothing that Republicans are doing now that's anything of a surprise,

7 minutes, 12 seconds

because they wrote it all down in a 922-page book that Donald Trump denied having anything to do with, and then they're implementing all of it.

7 minutes, 19 seconds

Should there be a Democratic equivalent of that?

7 minutes, 23 seconds

This is actually how we're going to fix all of these problems, judicial reform, electoral reform, nonpartisan redistricting, campaign finance and everything else?

7 minutes, 33 seconds

Yeah, well, certainly I think a lot of that has been laid out by House Democrats and we will continue to lay out what we think needs to be done in order,

7 minutes, 41 seconds

one, to solve the problems that the American people want us to WE'VE GOT TO ADDRESS IN TERMS OF AN AFFORDABLE LIFE, A COMFORTABLE LIFE,

7 minutes, 48 seconds

GIVING THEM THE ABILITY TO LIVE A MIDDLE-CLASS LIFE OR BEYOND, LIVED A GOOD LIFE.

7 minutes, 52 seconds

AT THE SAME PERIOD OF TIME, WE DO HAVE THESE WE'VE GOT TO,

7 minutes, 58 seconds

FOR INSTANCE, MAKE SURE WE PASS THE JOHN ROBERT LEWIS VOTING RIGHTS ADVANCEMENT ACT SO WE CAN END THE ERROR OF

8 minutes, 5 seconds

VOTER SUPPRESSION IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ONCE AND FOR ALL. WE HAVE TO END CITIZENS UNITED,

8 minutes, 10 seconds

DRAMATICALLY REFORM OUR CAMPAIGN FINANCE LAWS TO STOP THE ABILITY OF THESE DEEP-POCKETED SPECIAL INTERESTS TO INTERVENE.

8 minutes, 18 seconds

AND WE ARE GOING TO HAVE TO EXPLORE MASSIVE JUDICIAL REFORM,

8 minutes, 23 seconds

STATE BY STATE AND AT THE FEDERAL LEVEL AND EVERYTHING SHOULD BE ON THE TABLE AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED. CONGRESSMAN, GOOD TO SEE YOU.

8 minutes, 30 seconds

THANKS FOR BEING ON THE ON THE SHOW THIS MORNING.

8 minutes, 32 seconds

WE APPRECIATE CONGRESSMAN HAKEM JEFFRIES OF NEW YORK IS THE DEMOCRATIC LEADER IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

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