By
Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., raised more than $33 million for House Democrats in the first quarter of 2023 — his first as the party’s leader in the House.
The fundraising haul, which NBC News was first to report, will help fill the Democratic coffers as they look to retake control of the body in 2024.
“Our historic grassroots support is a testament to the faith and trust Americans have in Democrats to hold extreme MAGA Republicans accountable, take back the House in 2024 and continue our work delivering For The People by lowering costs, creating better-paying jobs and making our communities safe,” Jeffries told NBC News.
Fundraising was one of the key areas that Jeffries had the biggest shoes — or stilettos, as some have joked — to fill from his predecessor. Former Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, who led the party for more than a decade (and served two stints as Speaker of the House), was a prolific fundraiser for the party during her term in leadership, raising over $1 billion for Democrats.
During the first quarter of 2021, the same point in the calendar last midterm cycle, then-Speaker Pelosi raised more than $32 million.
While Pelosi has joined Jeffries at several stops in her native California, the Brooklyn-native has also cultivated his own donor relationships, including in his home state of New York, in this new role.
In these first one hundred days of the year, Jeffries has spent roughly a month on the road, clocking 20,000 miles traveled to nine states. Of the dollars he’s raised, $650,000 went directly to frontliners tasked with defending their seats in tough districts.
The New York Democrat will continue fundraising travel this month, huddling with donors in Atlanta, Seattle, Chicago, and Philadelphia in the coming weeks to kick off Q2.