The 52-year-old parliamentarian Hakeem Jeffries, the New York Democratic representative in the Lower House, yesterday became the first black leader of a political party in the United States Congress.
Jeffries came to the House in 2013, and since 2019 he has held the presidency of the caucus or Democratic group, in charge of coordinating training, setting its priorities and establishing its discipline.
The New York representative replaces in the Democratic leadership who had been exercising it for two decades, Nancy Pelosi, who at 82 years old announced her retirement from the position on December 17.
The veteran parliamentarian, affected by the recent attack on her husband by an ultra who attacked him with a hammer in the family home in San Francisco, stressed in making the announcement the need for a "generational change" that Jeffries is now coming to substantiate in part. Pelosi, however, will keep her California seat and has just been named Speaker Emeritus of the Lower House.
The Democratic group will have as number two Katherine Clark, 59 years old and representative of Massachusetts. The third place in the ranking, the one he had been occupying as president of the Democratic caucus, will go to the California legislator Pete Aguilar, 43 years old.
The appointments come to refresh the leadership of Joe Biden's party just over a month after Congress materializes its renewal in January after the mid-term elections on November 8.
