In NJ-12, Democrats won’t commit to backing Jeffries

Nine Democrats running for Congress filled a crowded stage during a two-and-a-half-hour debate Sunday night, and despite a fair share of bickering and disagreement, one shared belief became clear: they don’t fully trust the vision from Democratic Party leaders. 

More than a dozen Democrats are hoping to succeed retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing) in the 12th congressional district, and many qualified for a weekend debate at Rider University. One question — about how they would help maintain a long-term majority in the House and whether they support Democratic leadership — struck at the discord among some Democrats about those helming the party.

Despite recent big wins for Democrats across the country, the assembled candidates refused to publicly support House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer as Democratic leaders. Few publicly promised to oppose Jeffries and Schumer if elected, but they nonetheless declined to align themselves with the leaders.

Jay Vaingankar, a 28-year-old former Energy Department official, said Jeffries and Schumer must “earn our votes.” Adam Hamawy, a former Army combat surgeon, said Democratic leadership is “failing to meet the moment” and said the base would support leaders who stand up against the Trump administration. Princeton professor Sam Wang said he would not be “very favorable” to electing Jeffries as speaker, instead offering Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) as a potential leader.

“Republicans have been captured, but Democrats have lost their way, and that means there’s a necessity for new leadership,” Wang said. “If you’ve been watching the last couple of years, millions of people have turned out [due to] unhappiness with where things are going. And what that means is that outsiders need to come in and take over and bring the Democratic Party back to where it should be. And that means voting for new leadership.”

The issue evidently lingered in some minds. More than an hour after the question, and after a five-minute break, Somerset County Commissioner Shanel Robinson returned to the topic.

“For clarification on the previous question, I would not support Hakeem Jeffries or Schumer as leaders,” Robinson said.

The apprehension toward Jeffries and Schumer puts the candidates in line with a skeptical Democratic base. Many have accused Jeffries of lacking a clear vision under Trump, and his net approval rating among Democrats is just +3, according to a YouGov poll in January.

Schumer’s approval among Democrats began faltering last March, when he helped advance a GOP spending bill that averted a government shutdown. The same YouGov poll puts his net approval at -15 among fellow Democrats. (Another YouGov poll found 52% of Democrats would still want to keep Jeffries as leader, while 18% want someone else. Schumer’s numbers were more dire: 28% want him to remain leader, while 40% are looking for a replacement.)

And an AP-NORC poll from February found that only about 7 in 10 Democrats possess a positive view of their own party. 

But disapproval of a party doesn’t necessarily mean disapproval of its candidates. Rather, Democrats have notched big wins since Trump’s election. Last fall, Gov. Mikie Sherrill won what many expected to be a competitive gubernatorial race by more than 14 percentage points, and in a special election earlier this month, Rep. Analilia Mejia (D-Glen Ridge) outperformed Kamala Harris in the 11th congressional district by a dozen points. 

Mejia, for her part, has remained noncommittal on whether she would support Jeffries in a leadership vote or — should Democrats retake the House — a speakership vote.

Dozens of Democratic candidates from across the country, particularly progressives, have refused to commit to supporting Jeffries for party leader, according to Axios. Democrats in the 12th will fill the shoes of Watson Coleman, a progressive who has represented the district for more than a decade. 

Several other candidates didn’t discuss leadership but did voice some frustrations. Sue Altman, the former state director of the New Jersey Working Families Party, said Democrats lack a clear path forward.

“One of the most jarring aspects of the past 18 months has been watching the fact that Democrats do not have an answer for Project 2025,” Altman said. “They came in, and they ran their play, and we seem to have no comparable vision. We seem to have nothing comparable at all.”

Squire Servance, an attorney and member of the Rutgers University Board of Trustees, similarly stated that Democrats need a vision and strategy. And East Brunswick Mayor Brad Cohen said the chambers of Congress flip control regularly because of the lack of a proactive vision from leaders.

“The reason you’re seeing this pendulum is that, most of the time, people get to Congress and spend more of their time trying to make the other side look bad than actually getting anything done,” he said. “That’s why Congress has an 11% approval rating, which they have earned.”

The free-flowing nature of Sunday’s debate, forced by time restraints, meant that not every candidate answered each question. In this case, Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (D-Trenton) and Plainfield Mayor Adrian Mapp opted against walking up to the microphone.