As Nancy Pelosi exits stage left having been the first woman elected Speaker of the US House of Representatives, she has endorsed as her successor Hakeem Jefferies who could become the first person of colour to lead a political party in either chamber of Congress.
Born 4 August 1970 in New York with a social worker mother and a substance-abuse counsellor father, he attended local state schools and studied law at university. He acted as one of the prosecutors in Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial. Even if he succeeds Pelosi in leading his party in the lower chamber of Congress, he is unlikely to seize the Speaker’s gavel for at least two years.
He is said to be a unifier though he will have problems with an increasingly vocal progressive wing of the Democratic party, spearheaded by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. They have sought to paint Jeffries as a member of the establishment.
He is a flamboyant Sun Mars in Leo though his ostentatious traits will be damped down by Saturn in Taurus opposition Neptune and trine Pluto Venus in Virgo. He also has his Mercury and Moon in Virgo.
He is in a successful phase with tr Pluto square his Jupiter through 2022/23 though it does not meet the exact aspect again until January 13 2023 but will certainly see him buoyant as the new term gets underway.
He’s not an easy fit with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, with their relationship chart having an argumentative composite Sun Mars opposition Saturn and square Neptune which certainly suggests a good deal of aggravation and distrust.
Jeffries’ Virgo Stellium is wild, to say the least. He has proven to be a worthy heir of Speaker Pelosi both meeting the press and at Impeachment Hearing, my only reservation is whether he has the “spidery senses Pelosi got with her Scorpio Moon in knowing where the votes are. But actually, he might make that up with strategic brilliance, Leo/Virgo would be a classic combination present at a Military Leader’s chart.
Also, with this kind of Stellium, any negative impact is TRULY negative.
Policy wise, I would want to point out that the following might not be entirely true anymore:
“He is said to be a unifier though he will have problems with an increasingly vocal progressive wing of the Democratic party, spearheaded by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. They have sought to paint Jeffries as a member of the establishment.”
This would have been true in 2018, or even 2020, maybe, not so much recently. I’ve noticed there’s an interesting realignment happening right now among Progressive Democrats, with even Squad members dividing somewhat due to Russia’s War in Ukraine. There are members who are very firmly behind arming Ukraine, as, BTW, I think is Sanders (he is a 1st generation American from his father’s side, and father’s home town in Carpathian Mountains is only 100 km from modern Ukraine). I also think that essentially, Jeffries’ and AOC’s charts do have elements that would facilitate collaboration.
The “Squad” has voted against sanctions and repercussions for Russia. Bafflingly. In fact, AOC has voted with Republicans quite often. I would like to see her chart and other Squad member’s charts relocated to Russia and see what it may reveal.
@Aim. Nope. Cori Bush and Illhan Omar voted against Russian Oil Ban, but AOC didn’t. And they have all voted to support Ukrainian people on several occasions, as well as Finland and Sweden NATO membership, which actually didn’t have a single “Nay” from Democrats, just two not voting, but with 17 “Nay” from Republicans. Interpret it how you will, but these are facts you can easily draw from clerk.gov.house site if you are wonky enough.
For the record, I’ve also seen this “Justice Democrats are chaos agents” message pushed by Twitter feed since Elon Musk took over, and tend to have as little patience with it as I did with more pro-Assad and pro-Putin stuff I saw back in 2015-16. It was not all overt, but really spread with conviction not based on numbers.
AOC has raised over $60 million dollars for her coffers. She’s in a +29 Democratic district. Why the need for that much fundraising in such a solid blue district?
Also, most of those donations are hard to trace because they are extremely small amounts. And she has not passed a single bill! She has no legislative record, whatsoever. Conversely, Rep. Lauren Underwood, also new to politics (from Illinois) has passed two bills (one re: the price for insulin)! Yet, she’s not always on camera. Please take a look at Lauren—she’s a former nurse and she’s amazing. Thank you.
@Aim, your message in general is such bad faith – I think we can state disliking a person and maybe critizing them with sticking to facts – without zero astro l thought about not answering at all, but there are few points to clarify. The US Election financing laws do allow campaigns to transfer money collected between each other, and both parties are frequently doing this. For instance, in 2020/21, the fact many Red State Democrats collected deep “war chests” that were used to elect two Senators in Georgia. Republicans famously do this too. Also, it’s worth noting media markets in the US have different prices. Democrats lost 5 (?) seats in total in New York State in tight races after redistricting. One of the reasons I’ve seen cited was New York State Democratic Leadership completely miscalculated the effect of new districts shifting towards more of the population being on New York rather than Buffalo or Syracuse media markets, campaigning in New York being extremely expensive.
Regarding “small donations”, let me ask, would you prefer politicians to rely on big donors, then? It’s also factually incorrect to say small sums are “more difficult” to track than large ones, per se. Obviously, much depends on HOW the donations are made. Bank transfers are completely traceable, even through money transfer apps (Sweden, for instance, is almost completely cashless country now thanks to apps, and even here in Finland, we have increasing number of restaurants and cafés not excepting cash).
@Aim, in US campaign finance law donations under $200 don’t have to be reported individually except as an aggregate. For example, if I give a federal candidate several donations totalling under $200 in any given cycle, my name never appears on that candidate’s campaign finance reports. Once they total $200 per cycle, my name shows up. But I can give multiple donations under $200 to different candidates each cycle without my name ever showing up in the federal reporting system.
Anything under that level is legally considered “small” and extremely desirable. Many people donate sums under $10, however.
Solaia- I have always appreciated your replies very much. Irrespective of the finances, it’s disappointing that AOC and the squad have not passed any legislation. If you know of any tangible accomplishments of theirs, please let me know. I truly would like to know how they have helped my country move forward-not including sound bites and on camera work. My issue is “why does one need such a massive war chest for such a solidly blue district?” Maybe she plans on running for (P) in 2024. If so, that would be interesting to look at from an Astro perspective. Also, interesting to look at her chart compared with Pelosi’s since AOC did not want her as the Speaker the last go around. There are new politicians like Lauren Underwood who are getting things done. She’s a Democrat and had two bills passed under a (R) President. I believe that’s an extraordinary accomplishment. As an American, I would like to see people like her heralded. Instead, people like her go unnoticed. Maybe Pluto in Aq will allow for people like her to be more celebrated. Hope so.
Thank you.
And so…the baton has been passed from a Leo rising to a Leo sun. Cool.
Pop quiz: Which other Leo sun celebrates the same birthday as Jeffries? Here’s a clue, he’s an historically famous politician who’s also black. 🙂
Barack Obama, 4 Aug 1961. 🙂
@Triskit: Ding ding ding…you are correct. Tell her what she won Johnny.
“You’ve just won a beautiful all expense paid trip to Jamaica; courtesy of Marjorie”. Irie mon 🙂