House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said that his party is focused on solving voters’ top concerns since the time to campaign “has come to an end.”
A week after the Nov. 5 election, Republicans have gained control of the White House, the Senate, and the House, though the latter has yet to be called by the Associated Press. Despite the failure of the Democratic Party to deny the GOP a government trifecta, Jeffries largely avoided any criticisms of his party or its candidates during a Tuesday morning interview with CBS.
“We’ve got to make sure, of course, that we fix our broken immigration system and we secure the border. We have to make sure that we lower costs and grow the middle class. And we’ve got to work together. There are times to campaign and engage in the political process. That time has come to an end,” Jeffries said. “We’ve got to figure out how we can solve problems on behalf of everyday Americans.”
A report from Blueprint found that a quarter of voters ranked high inflation as the top reason they did not vote for Harris. The border was the top reason for another 23% of respondents. Both were in the top three concerns voters had overall in choosing Trump over Harris, including Harris’s priority of transgender issues over the middle class.
“We have to make sure that we continue to build the greatest middle class ever seen in the history of the world, and clearly, one of the focuses that we need to spend our attention on together, collectively, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans, is making sure that we can drive down the cost of living,” Jeffries said. “It’s too high for far too many Americans.”
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Jeffries’s comments echoed the takeaways from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who said that the Democratic Party “abandoned the working class.” This accusation has largely been mocked by Democratic leaders in the House, the Democratic National Committee, and the White House.
Democrats had a slightly better showing in the House than in the Senate. Even though they didn’t retake the majority, they did cut down their margin with the Republicans by securing wins in tough races, such as those in several New York districts.