In two months, President Joe Biden will be heading for the exits. And his would-be heir, Vice President Kamala Harris, will be following him out the door. 

As Democrats regroup following this month’s elections, which left them out of power in Washington, many are turning to Brooklyn Rep. Hakeem Jeffries to help forge a path forward and lead their comeback.

“He is the face of the Democratic Party,” Queens Rep. Gregory Meeks, a top Jeffries ally, told Spectrum News.

On Tuesday, U.S. House Democrats elected Jeffries to a second term as their leader. With no clear presidential favorite waiting in the wings, Jeffries is poised to be a guiding force for his party during the second Donald Trump administration. 

“Leader Jeffries is going to be the tip of the spear in trying to mitigate the kind of damage that I see coming down the pike,” Texas Rep. Veronica Escobar told Spectrum News.

“I think you’re only going to see his leadership role continue to rise and continue to gain national prominence,” Kentucky Rep. Morgan McGarvey said. 

In 2023, Jeffries took the reins from longtime leader Nancy Pelosi, becoming the top House Democrat, cementing a decade-long rise to power. 

Jeffries, who is known to be deliberative, has already launched a series of listening sessions to gather feedback from all corners of the Democratic coalition about what worked and what went wrong on Election Day. 

Bronx Rep. Ritchie Torres indicated answering that question is likely going to be a “challenge,” noting “the coalition of the Democratic Party ranges from the Squad to the Blue Dogs. So we have no universally agreed upon diagnosis of what went wrong.”

But, he noted, Jeffries is a “unifying figure in a time of division, and a cool head in a time of high emotion.”

Similarly, Meeks said Jeffries “is not making consensus, but moving consensus.” He likened the Brooklynite to an orchestra conductor making music out of a lot of noise. 

One conclusion that, so far, many Democrats appear to agree on is they need to be better at connecting with voters on economic concerns. 

“There’s just a lot of stuff that gets put on left and right, or progressive and conservative,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said. “But at the end of the day, people want to be able to put food on the table.”

Jeffries put those economic and affordability concerns front and center at his first press conference after Election Day, telling reporters on Friday, “We all have to do a better job of making life better for working class Americans who have had enough, and they are right.”

“The deck has been stacked against working class Americans and middle-class Americans and those Americans who aspire to be part of the middle class for far too long,” he continued. 

This month’s election did see some bright spots for Democrats — particularly in Jeffries’ home state of New York, where his party flipped three congressional seats. 

Last year, Jeffries helped launch a coordinated campaign initiative in New York, aimed at beefing up the state party operation after Republicans made inroads across the state in the 2022 midterms.

Democrat Laura Gillen, who flipped a district in Nassau County this month, called Jeffries a “strong, powerful voice,” while John Mannion, who is set to represent the Syracuse area, said Jeffries leads “with integrity."

Spectrum News reporters Reena Diamante and Erin Kelly contributed to this story.