BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — It didn’t take long for Hakeem Jeffries to break records this year.
The chaos of the House of Representatives, now up to 11 consecutive votes for a House Speaker due to divisions in the Republican party, has allowed the Bed-Stuy representative to accumulate a Huge number of lifetime votes for the positionaccording to an analysis by the Washington Post.
2,333 votes, to be exact.
By comparison, outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi received just over 2,000 votes during her time as a House Democratic Party leader.
The Washington Post reveals that Jeffries has received the third most lifetime votes for House Speaker since 1913, surpassed only by Texas Democrat Sam Rayburn, who served as House Speaker for 17 years, and Republican Kevin McCarthy, the current leading contender for the position, who also received votes for speakers in 2019 and 2020.
Not only that, but the Post found Jeffries to have received the most votes for Speaker in history.
During the 11 votes over the last few days, due to a faction of House Republicans who are declining to vote along with the rest of their party, Jeffries has won a majority of the votes each time, with 212 votes from a united Democratic delegation.
But since 212 votes is fewer than the 218 votes needed to become speaker, the process continues.
Chances are, the new House Democratic Party leader will break a few more vote records before the new House Speaker is elected.