Jeffries says Democrats 'on the verge' of winning the House. It puts speaker's gavel in reach

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — U.S. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries listened from the front row at the old Ohio church as the Sunday congregation heard of scripture’s guidance for calming a gathering storm.

“Wind, hush!” the speaker advised, describing the power to bring about change.

Jeffries nodded along, the words resonating beyond the church’s soaring brick walls, days out from the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress for the remainder of President Donald Trump’s term in the White House.

“We’re on the verge of taking back control of the House,” Jeffries told The Associated Press in an interview afterward.

“When this storm has passed, and it will, those of us who have served in the Congress during this time will be part of bringing about a better chapter in the United States of America,” he said. “That’s the mission. And failure is not an option."

Jeffries is on track to become House speaker, if Democrats sweep to power and elect him to the job, one of the most powerful positions in the U.S., second in line to the presidency. He has been campaigning across the country in more than 50 cities for House Democrats as they try to oust Republicans and win back majority control.

He would make history as the first Black American to hold the gavel.

The New York City-born Jeffries is a new generation of leadership at the Capitol, known for his deliberative, calm-is-a-choice style of governing. He would be the first Democratic speaker since Nancy Pelosi of California.

Democrats are preparing a 100-day agenda focused on lowering the cost of living and conducting oversight of Trump’s Republican administration, as Jeffries puts it, to “hold the crooks accountable.”

“What we’ve seen is he is quietly effective,” said Rep. Brad Schneider of Illinois, outgoing chairman of their party’s centrist New Democrat Coalition. “Rather than chasing rabbits, what Leader Jeffries has kept the caucus doing is focused on accomplishment, success and a plan for our future.”

First elected in 2012, Jeffries is sandwiched between the Pelosi-era elders who have held great sway in Congress and liberal millennial New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's generation, bridging the two.

A corporate lawyer, he grew up the son of a counselor and a social worker, steeped in Brooklyn's Cornerstone Baptist Church. He earned a political science degree at the State University of New York at Binghamton and a master's in public policy at Georgetown and graduated magna cum laude at New York University School of Law.

At 29, he made his first run for office, an insurgent himself, eager to oust a longtime New York state Assembly member. He failed, twice. Eventually he won a statehouse seat. He ran for Congress, mounting a challenge to a 30-year incumbent who stepped aside.

Since then Jeffries has been on a steady rise, representing parts of the district once held by trailblazing Rep. Shirley Chisholm.

“Faith and the community were always a central part of my journey," he said.

He said that's the case for many of his generation, “who grew up in the midst, you know, of some challenging times — the crack cocaine epidemic, a lot of community violence. A lot of people’s lives were prematurely lost.”

“It leads to a desire to want to improve the quality of life for hardworking people, who could have fled difficult circumstances but remained in the community, worked hard to turn things around,” he said.

At the Toledo church, the area's long-serving Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur told the congregation that when she first ran for office, Chisholm was the only member of Congress to campaign for her. Now another from Brooklyn is ready to lead.

“This man wants to do something for the people of this country,” she said.

Jeffries never bought into the theory that voters gave Republicans a mandate in 2024 with control of the White House and Congress, leaving Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana with one of the smallest majorities in modern times.

He set about to win power back for Democrats.

Democrats used the tools available to force votes that GOP leadership tried to avoid — on releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files and halting the Iran war.

They voted against the GOP’s big tax breaks and spending cuts bill, Jeffries delivering an eight-hour speech spotlighting cuts to Medicaid healthcare and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP.

At times, it seemed Jeffries, not Johnson, was in charge — including when Democrats shut down the government because Republicans refused to fund tax credits for the Affordable Care Act that millions of people relied on to buy health insurance.

Jeffries often sprinkles old-school hip hop lyrics into his speeches, and he said the music has been a soundtrack to life, as songs are for any generation.

“‘Sky’s the Limit’ is one of my favorite songs from The Notorious B.I.G.," he said, “because it really did track a journey from negativity to positivity and overcoming life’s adversity.”

Jeffries will be tested almost immediately if Democrats take control. The House speaker is elected when the new Congress convenes Jan. 3.

He is facing a new generation of upstarts, including a handful of candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America.

Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, the chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said Democrats are often a “party of nervous lawyers” at a time when voters are demanding change.

“To his credit,” he said about Jeffries, “in these key moments and opportunities where we've been able to take action, we’ve surprised people.”

Jeffries is described as a listener, who often jots down what colleagues say in meetings, a bottom-up style of leadership that works to build consensus. He said he has spoken to all the incoming Democrats. "Everybody’s got to chart their own path,” he said.

“On the other side of this election, I think what will unite House Democrats is the fact that we know things are broken in this country,” he said. "We've got to do something transformational about the affordability crisis.”

After the service, members of the congregation gathered in the church basement for a luncheon honoring the bishop's anniversary years of service, with steaming trays of chicken, greens, sweet potatoes and desserts.

Church member Lorna McKinstry, 74, a retired police dispatcher, said she was hopeful the country could begin to end its divisions.

“I want us to be a United States of America,” she said.

Jeffries visited over lunch before pushing on to the next stops, driven by a sense of purpose that the country can do better.

Those in Congress “have a responsibility to stop the madness from continuing to hurt everyday Americans," he said, "and chart a more hopeful path toward making this country the best version of herself.”

In this photo taken with a smartphone, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, standing with Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, join a church luncheon after Sunday services at the Worship Center of Toledo on Oct. 18, 2026, in Toledo, Ohio. (AP Photo/Lisa Mascaro)

In this photo taken with a smartphone, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, with Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, talk with people at the Friendship Baptist Church, on Oct. 18, 2026, in Toledo, Ohio. (AP Photo/Lisa Mascaro)

In this photo taken with a smartphone, Lorna McKinstry, a member of the Worship Center of Toledo, helps during a luncheon on Oct. 18, 2026, in Toledo, Ohio. (AP Photo/Lisa Mascaro)

In this photo taken with a smartphone, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, standing with Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, listens from the pew at the Worship Center of Toledo on Oct. 18, 2026, in Toledo, Ohio. (AP Photo/Lisa Mascaro)

PARIS (AP) — Thousands of protesters took to the Paris streets on Thursday while other cities banned demonstrations following a weekend of clashes and widespread looting that marked France’s most violent unrest in years.

Organizers of the Paris protest said an administrative court overturned a ban issued by police after they challenged it. The Paris prefecture previously said the ban was necessary, given the risk of street violence after groups of masked youth clashed with officers, looted shops and torched cars over the weekend.

The Paris court ruling was not immediately made public. Protesters, including many youngsters, gathered peacefully and chanted in a southeastern part of the city amid heavy police presence.

“We don’t need tear gas for our future to look bleak,” read a banner they unfurled.

Organizers signed a police document stating that the protest would remain stationary due to the risk of violence.

More bans were expected in the coming days. French President Emmanuel Macron said such measures aim to protect city centers, businesses and public buildings.

The right to demonstrate is protected by the French Constitution, and bans on demonstrations planned for Thursday in Paris, Lyon, Lille and Grenoble were seen by some as an infringement on French people’s right to protest.

High school and university student groups said they will continue to mobilize, even though the autumn school break started this week.

Macron said after a special security meeting at the Elysée Palace that the strategy adopted for the coming days is to ban protests requested by “individuals or groups with no legitimate authority.”

“The rules are simple, and I think they’re just common sense. The general recommendation is that there should be no demonstrations in the coming days," he said. “For those who still want to protest, if they are trade unions, prefects will propose alternative routes."

Macron blamed the weekend's violence on “actions led by radical far-left groups who aimed to bring the Republic down," in addition to criminals who came to loot.

The turmoil in Paris and other French cities has prompted a strong security response. Night curfews have been implemented in some areas of the French capital, as well as in other cities where calm has been restored.

Thursday's planned protests were seen as a prelude to Saturday's big demonstration, when activists from the CGT labor union and the “ yellow vest ” movement, whose demonstrations over fuel prices shook France in 2018 and 2019, are expected to join.

Some of those protests, including marches in Lyon, Marseille and Montpellier, will also be banned, local authorities said. Cities outside Paris have been hit hard by the unrest, including Limoges where a fire nearly destroyed the 19th century city hall.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, who met union representatives on Wednesday, said a “massive” security operation was planned for Saturday to prevent a repeat of the violence by small groups of rioters that had exposed shortcomings in security measures.

Union representatives said their meeting with Lecornu did not result in concrete proposals. They are now focusing on another big day of action scheduled on Nov. 5, and called on private and public sector employees to join.

The demonstrations first erupted last month in a high school in Creteil, southeast of Paris, over a lack of staff. From there, class strikes, blockades and demonstrations spread to other Paris suburbs and then nationwide, even in smaller towns.

High school students have raised concerns about underfunded schools, dilapidated facilities and staff shortages, particularly in lower-income neighborhoods. Some also called for a reform of the university admissions system, seen by many as complex and unfair.

With the government seemingly unable to respond to students' demands, the school demonstrations and blockades have morphed into larger protests over soaring living costs, just months before next year's presidential election to choose Macron's successor.

Nicolas Garriga and Boubkar Benzabat in Paris contributed to this report.

A woman walks past a building with graffiti that reads "The ultra-rich against everyone" and "No justice, no peace. RIP El Hacen" after the weekend protests over the cost of living turned into rioting and looting across France, in Paris, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Teresa Suarez)

A man walks past a burned-out structure next to the inscription in a wall ¨Power = Pedophilia¨ after the weekend protests over the cost of living turned into rioting and looting across France, in Paris, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Teresa Suarez)

People walk past La Barrique bistrot damaged after the weekend protests over the cost of living turned into rioting and looting across France, in Paris, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Teresa Suarez)

View of charred objects from a newsstand after the weekend protests over the cost of living turned into rioting and looting across France, in Paris, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Teresa Suarez)

People watch and take photos of cleanup efforts after weekend protests over the cost of living turned into rioting and looting across France, in Paris, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Teresa Suarez)