Soon after Hakeem Jeffries arrived in the House in 2013, one of his earliest mentors approached a group of senior Black Democrats with a message.
“I think he is the one,” former Rep. Eddie Bernie Johnson told lawmakers at the time, including Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, who recalled she was seated in her long-time perch on the House floor when she made the prediction.
Within months, that same bloc of Black Democrats began meeting regularly over dinner to discuss Jeffries’ future — drawing up plans to ensure that he would replace then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi when she retired and hoping to cement his place as the first Black speaker in US history, according to multiple people involved in the discussions.
