Speaker Jeffries Says He Lost the House to 'More Than a Century of Midterm History,' Which Was Not on the Ballot Either

SHREVEPORT — Speaker Jeffries addressed supporters in his hometown late Tuesday as his majority slipped away, and identified the opponent responsible: history. "To keep the House," he said, "we would have to defy more than a century of midterm history," noting a president's party has gained or held seats in a first midterm only twice in ninety years. "It looks like history will be kept tonight."

Jeffries did not mention that in February he had described losing the House as "the end" of his own president's presidency "in a real effect," a framing his party's candidates were asked to repeat for nine months and that history, apparently, overheard.

"To every American disappointed by tonight's results — I mean, I'm disappointed too. But we are never discouraged," he said, before describing the plan for the next two years. "You know what we do? We double down." The Press was unable to determine on what.

The Speaker's own future is unsettled. His president, asked whether Jeffries should lead the party in the minority, said he had "done a very good job" and would "have to make that decision," an endorsement structured so that neither man would be bound by it.

The Press's Speaker's Lobby desk applies the standard test. When a Speaker of the other party loses the chamber and blames the calendar, the word "excuses" is in the headline and the knives are described as "out." Under Jeffries it is "a historic headwind." The century is identical; only the Speaker has moved.

At press time history had not returned the Speaker's call.