Hakeem Jeffries, whose full name is Hakeem Sekou Jeffries, is an American Democrat born on August 4, 1970, in Brooklyn, New York. Hakeem Jeffries is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives (2013– ). Jeffries is the first Black person to lead a major party in either house of Congress. He will be the House minority leader in 2023.
Hakeem Jeffries: Education qualification
Jeffries is the older of his parents’ two sons. His mother, Laneda (Gomes) Jeffries, is a social worker, and his father, Marland Jeffries, is a counsellor for people who use drugs. The family lived in Crown Heights, a neighbourhood in Brooklyn. Hakeem Jeffries went to Binghamton University, part of the State University of New York.
In 1992, he got a bachelor’s degree in political science. He went to Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and got a master’s degree in public policy after two years. Jeffries then went to law school at New York University and graduated in 1997.
Hakeem Jeffries: Political career
Jeffries ran for the New York State Assembly in 2006 and won. He got the job the following year. He was chosen to serve on that body twice more. In 2012, he tried to get into the House of Representatives. Jeffries easily won the election to be the representative for New York’s 8th congressional district. This district comprises parts of both Brooklyn and Queens, which is close by.
After he got into office in 2013, he was very interested in changing how police and the criminal justice system worked. After Eric Garner, an unarmed Black man died in July 2014, he introduced a bill to ban chokeholds by police at the federal level. When Garner was arrested on Staten Island, he was put in a chokehold, which killed him. Jeffries also backed the First Step Act, which was signed into law in 2018.
Part of its goal was to improve conditions in federal prisons and make sure that people who were found guilty of federal crimes got fair and reasonable sentences. Jeffries was on both the House Budget Committee and the House Judiciary Committee. He was also a part of the Black Caucus in Congress.
Hakeem Jeffries: Personal life
Kennisandra Arciniegas-Jeffries is a social worker, and she is married to Jeffries. The family lives in Brooklyn, where the couple and their two sons live.
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