Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries To Spearhead Effort To Flip New York House Seats
Together with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Jeffries is assembling an elite team inside the New York State Democratic Party that will run a coordinated campaign aimed at flipping Republican-held U.S. House seats and defending vulnerable Democratic House incumbents, according to three New York Democrats familiar with the matter.
Under Jeffries’ plan, the new entity within the state party would be responsible for recruiting candidates, crafting coherent messages and pooling resources — all in the interest of helping Democrats win in New York’s many competitive U.S. House seats.
The House-focused coordinated campaign’s list of priority districts is identical to that of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, House Democrats’ official campaign arm, which declined to comment for this story. Both New York and national Democrats are hoping to flip six GOP-held seats — New York’s 1st, 3rd, 4th, 17th, 19th, and 22nd Congressional Districts — and help U.S. Rep. Pat Ryan (D) hold on to New York’s 18th.