House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., is harshly dismissing a fellow Democrat who publicly undermined his quest to win the majority in Congress — on the left-wing leader's own home turf. Jeffries hit back at Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, in a statement to Fox News Digital on Tuesday after Golden endorsed Rep.
Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., a moderate Republican, for re-election in November. "Mike Lawler is a partisan hack and Trump sycophant who Cait Conley will defeat in November. In desperation, he is peddling an 11th-hour endorsement from a retiring congressmember who represents an out-of-town district more than 400 miles away," Jeffries said.
"This smoke-and-mirrors ploy will do nothing to change the outcome of the race. The election will be decided by the people of Westchester and the lower Hudson Valley." OUTGOING HOUSE DEMOCRAT BACKS INCUMBENT REPUBLICAN LAWMAKER FOR RE-ELECTION Jeffries claimed Lawler had "never shown bipartisan courage when it matters" while lauding his Democrat opponent as a "combat veteran and patriot." DEMOCRAT CHALLENGING MIKE LAWLER WON'T COMMIT ON CAMPAIGNING WITH AOC, MAMDANI OR REJECTING DSA "Mike Lawler can try to run from his extremist record. We will never let him hide," he said.
But Golden, who has broken from Jeffries multiple times in the past, argued Lawler was among the most bipartisan members of Congress. JEFFRIES THREATENS 'SERIOUS RESPONSE' AFTER DEMOCRATS HELP GOP ADVANCE ANTI-SOCIALISM VOTE "I know how bipartisan Mike Lawler really is. I know something about what that takes.
I held the most challenging district of any Democrat in the country by earning the trust of Democrats, independents, and Republicans alike," Golden wrote. "Lawler holds one of just three Republican seats in the country that Kamala Harris carried in 2024. Representing districts like ours forces you to work for people who disagree with you, and it teaches you that those people are not your enemies.
They are your neighbors." HOUSE DEMS OVERWHELMINGLY REJECT ANTI-SOCIALISM RESOLUTION AFTER 2 MODERATES DEFY JEFFRIES He pointed out that the nonpartisan Lugar Bipartisanship Index ranked Lawler the fourth-most bipartisan member of Congress in its most recent analysis. "I am leaving Congress in January by my own choice, but I have not given up on the institution, and voters should not either. The Congress we get is the one we elect, and the country needs fewer members who treat the job as a stage and more who treat it as work.
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