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House Democrats haven’t exactly had President Joe Biden on speed dial. They might have an easier time reaching Kamala Harris if she succeeds him.
That’s because the vice president has a closer working relationship with them and their leader, Hakeem Jeffries, than many on Capitol Hill realize. The Harris-Jeffries bond may become the most important one in Washington, if the election goes Democrats’ way — particularly since the GOP has a strong chance of taking back the Senate majority this fall.
The two barrier-breaking Black leaders, less than six years apart in age, forged their ties through the Congressional Black Caucus and later worked together on two criminal justice bills. Harris and Jeffries stay in touch regularly; the day after her commanding performance in her first debate with Donald Trump last week, they connected to discuss the “path forward.”
Harris and Jeffries got to know each other during her time in the Senate, and these days a White House official describes them as “colleagues and friends.” It’s a sign that Harris, despite her status as a relative newcomer to Washington, is already notably connected to the House. Biden, by contrast, spent nine times as long as Harris did as a senator (36 years versus four) – which effectively branded him as a “Senate guy” in the eyes of Washington.
Some House Democrats say Harris has already developed a strong relationship with them because, quite simply, she picks up the phone.
“As weird as this may seem, you can call her. We can reach her,” Rep. Troy Carter, D-La., told Semafor, adding that “she hasn’t changed her focus, her accessibility” since becoming the nominee.
Jeffries called Harris “a dynamic leader” in a statement to Semafor, adding that “I got to know her when she joined the Senate in January of 2017” through their work in the Black Caucus. That powerful bloc brought Harries and Jeffries together early on through the First Step Act, a bipartisan criminal justice law that cut mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders, among other changes. Trump signed it into law in 2018, then stopped touting it on the trail, though he has since indicated an interest in expanding it.
Former Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., who joined the Biden-Harris White House in 2021, recalled in an interview that he, Jeffries, and the late Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, shepherded the bill through the House. They then leaned on Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Harris to help get it to Trump’s desk, he added.
Harris and Booker helped “get the bill in a much stronger place in the Senate,” Richmond said. “And it came back a much broader bill, with Republican and Democratic support.”
The Black Caucus served as a connector between Harris and Jeffries even after she won the vice presidency. The New Yorker’s first White House visit during the Biden administration came in 2021, before he took over for Nancy Pelosi as House Democratic leader, for a Black Caucus meeting with Harris.
Harris and Jeffries “are nearly the same person, in terms of how they see the world,” said Ashley Etienne, a former aide to Biden, Harris, and Pelosi who worked with Jeffries on Trump’s first impeachment.
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While the Black Caucus helped connect Harris and Jeffries, it also put the future vice president in occasionally humanizing situations.
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., shared a memory of Harris’ appearance at a Black Caucus luncheon during her 2020 presidential bid (against Biden and Booker, among others). She approached Cleaver to ask who he was supporting in that year’s primary and, as he recalled, followed up without giving him a chance to respond: “‘I ain’t too proud to beg.’”
One source close to the Black Caucus described Harris’ bond with its members as better than that of former President Barack Obama, who also served as a member during his time in the Senate.
However, Harris has burnished her House Democratic relationships in other major ways. She was an executive member of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus during her time in the Senate, and Asian American lawmakers have fully embraced her potential to become the first South Asian president in US history.
Befitting the importance of the Latino vote to both her state and her party base, Harris invited the Hispanic Caucus chair to join the Asian Pacific American and Black Caucus chairs in her guest box during her Democratic National Convention acceptance speech last month.
Then there’s the massive California delegation in the House, which currently counts 40 Democratic members who are near-automatic go-tos for Harris. One of them, Rep. Robert Garcia, is a national co-chair of Harris’ campaign, alongside Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, a rising star in the freshman class.
Harris has also separately had dinner with the so-called “pew crew,” a group of eight Black younger (think millennial and Generation X) Democratic women members of Congress who became friendly while seated together in the House chamber during the GOP’s speaker race.
“She invited us to dinner, and it was mostly just, ‘I have been where you are, and I want to be a resource and be helpful to you all, just even if it’s just a safe space to talk,’” Rep. Jennifer McClellan, D-Va., told Semafor of Harris. McClellan added that she was surprised the vice president even knew about the group.
All of those House relationships are set to help Harris get things done, should she defeat Trump in November. Yet none will be as critical as her tie to Jeffries. Their shared blue-state background is already helping bolster confidence on the Hill that a President Harris would be able to unwind Trump’s cap on federal deductions for state and local taxes, a wonky issue that hits taxpayers in New York and California.
Reps. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., and Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., both said “yes” when asked if they see the chances of unwinding the cap on state and local tax deductions as higher during a Harris presidency.
Kadia’s view
The Black Caucus is often talked about as a power base for Biden, whose support from Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., during the 2020 primary has become something of a party legend. Yet it’s even more critical to Harris, who has a much stronger base in the House than even some sitting House Democrats realize.
Beyond their work as Black Caucus members, though, Harris and Jeffries belong to the same generation and share a cultural language in terms of how they practice politics — much like Biden and Pelosi did, though the outgoing president was always a Senate guy first.
All of which means that, no matter who controls the Senate, a President Harris and a Speaker Jeffries can expect to work well together.
They might even align on the East-West Coast divide that’s dominated hip-hop for decades. After all, then-Sen. Harris praised Jeffries for quoting the New York-based Notorious B.I.G. during his remarks at Trump’s first impeachment trial.
Notable
- Over in Harris’ old stomping ground, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer also speaks with her “fairly often” (and is characteristically upbeat about his majority prospects), he told Spectrum News.
- Trump’s appeal to younger Black men in particular threatens the high Black turnout Harris is counting on to win, Politico reports.