“I proudly accepted this responsibility from my colleagues when I was elected as assistant speaker,” Rep. Ben Ray Luján said. “I absolutely believe that I can and will continue to serve in this very important role for the good of the country and the good the caucus.” | Zach Gibson/Getty Images congress Luján's move opens up Jeffries' path to speaker's chair With the New Mexico congressman announcing that he’s running for Senate, House Democrats are avoiding a ‘knife fight’ over future leadership battles.

Ben Ray Luján just gave Hakeem Jeffries a big gift: A clearer path to the speaker’s chair.

Luján’s decision to jump into the New Mexico Senate race — waiving the chance to move up in House leadership — removes a potential rival for Jeffries (D-N.Y.), according to more than a dozen Democratic lawmakers and aides.


Luján, Jeffries and Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.) are widely considered the leaders of the next generation of House Democrats. They’re the ones who will pick up the mantle from Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) when the septuagenarian triumvirate eventually moves on.

But Luján’s decision leaves Jeffries and Bustos, chairwoman of House Democrats’ campaign arm, on that tier alone. Other members are also in the mix — including Massachusetts Rep. Katherine Clark, vice chair of the caucus, and Reps. Cedric Richmond of Louisiana and Pete Aguilar of California, both senior whips under Clyburn. Yet out of all of them, Jeffries may have the inside track on becoming the next top House Democrat.

“It does give a clearer path,” Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) said in an interview. “Hakeem and Cheri and Katherine and others who might be interested, Ben Ray certainly would’ve been in that mix but now he’s running for the Senate.”

The decision by Luján to run for Senate could head off what was expected to be a messy battle — a “knife fight” as one Democrat described it — for the speaker’s gavel after nearly two decades under Pelosi’s reign.

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Luján is the highest ranking Latino in Congress, a close ally of Pelosi and well-liked within the caucus. Jeffries, meanwhile, likely will have the backing of the powerful Congressional Black Caucus and has impressed members with his confrontational style as caucus chairman, not hesitating to directly challenge President Donald Trump in his weekly news conference.

Still, the road to the gavel isn’t guaranteed for Jeffries. Although Pelosi has promised to serve no more than four more years as speaker, Hoyer and Clyburn have notably refused to make similar commitments and could run for the top job. And it’s unclear whether Jeffries — or anyone else — would dare challenge Pelosi’s two longtime deputies for the speakership.

Jeffries declined to comment for this article. But sources close to the New York Democrat stressed that he takes his current job very seriously and doesn’t want to repeat mistakes from other ambitious members, like former Reps. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.), both considered speakers-in-waiting before being wiped out in primary challenges that ended their congressional careers.

And it was never clear whether Luján planned to run for the speakership or vie for a lower-ranking position, like majority leader or whip, when the jobs became available, the sources added.

“The sky is the limit for Hakeem Jeffries and whatever he wants to do,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), a Jeffries confidant. “If he wants to continue to rise in the leadership here — I think there’s opportunities here with Ben Ray and they’re going to be here without Ben Ray.”

Bustos is seen in some quarters as another potential future speaker. But Bustos has repeatedly declined to talk about her ambitions beyond being Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairwoman, including whether she wanted to be speaker someday.

“I am focused politically on making sure we hang on to this majority and do what we can to grow it,” Bustos said. “I am not focused on my next step or anybody else’s next step.”

Bustos offered strong praise for Jeffries, whom she called “an amazingly talented man” and “my very, very close friend.”

“We are very close. We have a wonderful working relationship, and I have a great deal of respect” for Jeffries, the Illinois Democrat said. “We have been a very, very good team. We worked hand in glove the last two years as co-chairs of the [Democratic Policy and Communications Committee.] This cycle, we are working hand in glove — me working on the political end of things, he as the caucus chair.”

Bustos also supported Luján remaining in his role as assistant speaker. “I think he should do what he thinks is right. I don’t think he plans to step down,” Bustos said.

Luján told POLITICO he has no plans to vacate his House leadership position while he runs to replace retiring New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall.

“I proudly accepted this responsibility from my colleagues when I was elected as assistant speaker,” Luján said in an interview. “I absolutely believe that I can and will continue to serve in this very important role for the good of the country and the good the caucus.”

Still, several Democratic lawmakers said privately that conversations have already started about who would replace Luján if he changes his mind.

A source close to Jeffries said he wouldn’t run for the No. 4 job even if Luján were to resign from the post. The chairman position technically ranks lower on the House leadership ladder, but Jeffries has a more clearly defined role, a higher profile — leading caucus meetings before a news conference each week — and a bigger budget.

Clark and Aguilar have been mentioned as potential Luján replacements. And Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island, who was initially running against Luján for the assistant speaker job before dropping out after Pelosi created a new leadership position for him, is also mentioned as a potential candidate.

While Luján’s decision to stay denies other members the opportunity to run for leadership in the short term, it ensures the New Mexico Democrat maintains his high-profile job while he's on a two-year Senate campaign.

A handful of lawmakers said — mostly on background to speak candidly — they think Luján should consider stepping down because so much of his attention will be focused on his Senate campaign and not his job in the House.

“When it becomes official and he really is in the race, I think he should resign" from leadership, said Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.).

But most members polled by POLITICO said they don’t mind if Luján stays in House leadership for the time being. Doing so would avoid a distracting leadership race when Democratic leaders are already struggling to keep the focus on their legislative agenda, they said.

Hoyer said he had no problems with Luján staying in leadership.

"He's a young guy, a lot of energy, a lot of credibility," Hoyer said of Luján. "He's handling our freshmen. He's just been through two cycles with them at the DCCC. He has extraordinary knowledge of their districts, extraordinary knowledge of them. To the extent that we can have him as long as possible, it makes sense to do so."

Another Democratic source noted that Crowley stayed on as caucus chairman through the end of last year, a full six months after he had been defeated by now-Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

“Nobody is going to do that because if you did that, it would hurt his campaign,” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) said when asked if he thought anyone would push for Luján to step down. “If I was running against him and he was dumped out of leadership, [I would say] ‘So the Democrats have tossed him out and now he wants to be our senator?’”

Sarah Ferris contributed to this report.