During his weekly press briefing, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) was asked about special election results for Democratic candidates.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Last night, there was very high Democratic turnout in these off-cycle social elections
00:07in Wisconsin and Florida.
00:08What does that say to you about the Democratic electorate?
00:12It's been very interesting because all we've heard for the last four months is that Democrats
00:18were dispirited, Democrats are disheartened, Democrats are discouraged, but that's actually
00:28not been our experience as House and Senate Democrats as we travel the country.
00:36It's understandable that Democrats want us to do everything we can to push back against
00:43the extremism from Donald Trump and the complicity, the toxic complicity, the fact that they just
00:52are going along to get along as House Republicans, burying their head in the sand or actively
00:58supporting Trump's efforts to harm the American people.
01:01American people are disgusted by that all, and they rightfully are going to continue
01:06to ask all of us as House Democrats, as Senate Democrats, as Democratic governors, all of
01:12us to stay in the fight, intensify the fight until we can get through this national nightmare
01:21that Trump and the Republicans are inflicting on the American people.
01:24But folks have been confusing that with this notion that Democrats are somehow discouraged
01:33and dispirited, because what we've seen every single month this year is Democrats in special
01:45elections all over the country win or overperform, and I don't have time to go through it all
01:54now, but in the first special election of the Trump presidency in Iowa, in a state
02:01Senate district, in a conservative part of a swing Iowa district, currently represented
02:07by Representative Miller Meeks, one of the most unpopular Congress members in the country,
02:12and she'll be gone after the next election, barely won in 2024, in a state Senate district
02:21that Donald Trump had won in November of 2024, the Democrat won.
02:28Trump had won that state Senate district in Iowa in January that we were competing in
02:33by 21 points.
02:36Democrat wins by four.
02:37That's a 25 point overperformance.
02:42And then in February, we had a special election in New York for the Westchester County executive.
02:47Trump endorses the Republican.
02:50They believe they have some big mandate.
02:52They can overwhelm us.
02:54Democrats are on the run all across the country.
02:57Trump endorses the Westchester County executive candidate, Westchester County, partially represented
03:03by Mike Lawler, Westchester County executive, George Latimer, is now a member of Congress.
03:10He vacates the seat before Latimer held the Westchester County executive seat.
03:15It was held by a Republican, Rob Astorino, for eight years.
03:20This district goes back and forth.
03:23It's a swing county in New York City.
03:27Trump endorses the Republican.
03:28The Democrat, Ken Jenkins, African American man, wins by 30 points.
03:34This was in February.
03:38And then in March, several special elections, but I'll focus on the most recent one in Pennsylvania,
03:45Lancaster County, State Senate district, that Donald Trump had just won by 15 points.
03:53The Democrat won.
03:56By the way, Pennsylvania, one of the 13 original states, a Democrat has never represented a
04:06state Senate district in Lancaster County.
04:09That just happened.
04:13And in Wisconsin yesterday, by the way, in a state that Donald Trump had just won, Elon
04:21Musk pours millions and millions of dollars into it.
04:25It wasn't even close.
04:27They got wiped out in Wisconsin.
04:31That's the kind of energy that we've been seeing as House Democrats from the very beginning
04:36of this Trump presidency, despite the efforts by some to project this notion.
04:43That House Democrats, Senate Democrats, the Democratic Party is cowering.
04:47We're not cowering.
04:49We're beating them over and over and over again.
04:54And yes, as Corey said yesterday, powerfully on the floor, more needs to be done.
04:59But those are the facts.
05:03We got facts on the court cases that we're winning.
05:05We got facts on the reality that we continue to outrace House Republicans.
05:13Despite all the doom and gloom narratives.
05:19So Republicans can keep trying to spin the American people.
05:22We're going to keep beating them until we take back control of the House of Representatives
05:28next year.