A relentless barrage of phone calls continues to flood both the House and Senate, with voters from around the country urging Democrats not to make Hakeem Jeffries the speaker of the House nor Chuck Schumer majority leader in the Senate. The contest in the Senate came alive on Monday when advisers to Sen. Chris Van Hollen said he was openly considering a challenge to Schumer.
In a new video, Van Hollen is demanding Congress refuse to approve “one more penny” for the war in Iran and dared President Donald Trump to shut the government down to continue a conflict he promised he wouldn’t start.
After his meeting with the Qatari prime minister, Trump said the Iran war is “effectively over,” making the demand to end it officially that much more achievable. Schumer has claimed that he has enough private commitments to be elected majority leader, but the contest seems anything but over.
On the House side, however, the party is closing ranks around Jeffries. Rep. Greg Casar has said his Progressive Caucus will deliver Jeffries the votes needed, while Reps. Brad Lander, Ro Khanna, and others have announced their support.
Incoming Rep. Don Leonard, a Democrat who flipped a deep red district in Ohio, said in a video he posted online that allies of Jeffries had threatened “to make [his] life a living hell” if he didn’t get in line and support Jeffries without conditions. His conditions: 1) A vote on a constitutional amendment to end Citizens United and 2) “end U.S. support for the war in Iran and the country, Israel, that led us into it.” Leonard said he was told he would never be re-elected if he didn’t play ball.
Meanwhile, nobody has risen in opposition, though members can vote for someone whether they’re running or not. Democrats would need roughly 40 members to vote for someone other than Jeffries to ensure he doesn’t meet the threshold of 218—a much taller order than the handful of “no” votes that locked out Republican former Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Drop Site’s Julian Andreone asked Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez if such an approach was being considered. “I think that should be absolutely part of the conversation. But you have to remember, during that time, there was a very small margin that allowed for that kind of thing to happen,” she said.
“If it is an unopposed race, then there’s really no material scenario until there is a race,” she said. “My assessment would be that would be unrealistic. In a contested race [it’s] a different situation.”
The situation presents something of a catch-22: Jeffries isn’t vulnerable unless a challenger emerges, and a challenger won’t emerge as long as Jeffries is seen as invulnerable. Democrats who organize against Jeffries, even privately, risk having their “lives made a living hell” if they try and fail.
Many Democrats say privately they believe Jeffries will be much easier to move on major issues than was former Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Rep. Delia Ramirez, the lead sponsor of the Block The Bombs Act, which bars the transfer of some weapons to Israel, told Drop Site she met recently with Jeffries, and came away with the impression that Jeffries would be willing to put the bill on the floor.
For more on that conversation and the looming fight over Block The Bombs, read Tom Perkins’s dispatch below.
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Progressives Lay the Groundwork to Force a Vote on Ending Some Arms Sales to Israel
Rep. Delia Ramirez told Drop Site she is in discussions with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on bringing the Block The Bombs Act to the floor.
Story by Tom Perkins
Progressives in Congress are already pressuring House leadership for a vote next session on the Block The Bombs Act, which would end U.S. sales for at least some weapons to Israel. The organizing comes as history’s most pro-Palestinian Congress will sit in 2027, and the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) will expand its power as its membership grows to unprecedented numbers.
Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), who authored the current session’s Block The Bombs legislation, told Drop Site News she has already had initial discussions with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries about bringing the bill to the floor, and more conversations are planned for the coming days.
Ramirez said she “did not get a direct ‘no’” and she is optimistic because of progressives’ new power in Congress, Israel’s dismal polling among Democrats, and because voters sent a message by electing at least 16 new pro-peace candidates in November, some of whom defeated among Israel’s staunchest congressional allies.
“Our caucus is going to ask the question are you pro-peace or pro-genocide?’” Ramirez said. “The American people have made clear what side they are on, and what they expect of their leaders.”
The current Block The Bombs bill, which has 82 cosponsors, was introduced in September 2025 and would stop the president “from selling, transferring, or exporting certain defense articles or services to Israel, except in specified circumstances.” The sales would be allowed only if Congress passes legislation specifying how the weapons would be used and Israel agrees to the terms. The precise scope of next session’s legislation is unclear.
In January 2026, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told The Economist that Israel was enacting a 10-year-plan to wean itself off U.S. weapons, and reiterated that point multiple times this year. In the days ahead of the election, President Donald Trump said the U.S. would no longer provide Israel with around $4 billion annually in support for weapons. On Monday, the liberal Zionist organization J Street called for ending taxpayer support for sales and evaluating arms sales on a case-by-case basis, though it stopped short of calling for a full embargo.
“They’ve become a very successful country,” Trump said on November 3. “They don’t need it, and we won’t be paying any more.” When asked why, he added, “Why should we suffer the slings from lunatics like an El-Sayed when they don’t need it?”
Meanwhile, calls for an arms embargo that would end all weapons sales to Israel has gained traction in the political mainstream. Among those supporting ending taxpayer assistance and barring weapons sales are Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), and Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed (D-Mich.)—as well as incoming Reps. Matt Little (D-Minn.), Chris Rabb (D-Pa.), and Melat Kiros (D-Colo.).
In July this year, over 100 Democrats voted to support Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie’s amendment to a State Department funding bill that would have eliminated approximately $3.3 billion in annual U.S. military assistance to Israel. The amendment still failed by a wide margin and Massie lost his primary after Trump backed his challenger and outside groups, including AIPAC’s United Democracy Project, came in with $37 million in spending.
Jeffries opposed the Massie amendment and said in a letter to Democrats at the time that it was “overly broad in that it prohibits or would limit the use of funds for longstanding initiatives related to humanitarian aid, refugee resettlement, peace-building and U.S. Embassy operations.”
However, Jeffries also called for a “major reset” between the U.S. and Israel.
When asked about the scope of next session’s Block The Bombs bill, a spokesperson for Ramirez said the congress member did not have a comment.
A Jeffries spokesperson did not return a request for comment.
Ramirez added that she last week met with many of the pro-peace members-elect who ran on ending U.S. support for Israel’s genocide and is strategizing about how to get the legislation to the floor. The CPC will play a key role in the effort.
The largest CPC ever will sit next session when it takes in 25 new members, though its total number will increase only slightly because some members are leaving. However, this new group will be more to the left than the preceding, and Ramirez said the caucus will be in its “strongest position ever” and is “expanding its authority and power.” Not every current CPC member cosigned on Block The Bombs, and its leftward shift will likely increase the level of support.
The CPC is essential to getting Block The Bombs to the floor, Ramirez said, and she and the CPC chair, Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), have had conversations about it. “We are being very strategic about organizing and adding more cosponsors,” Ramirez added.
She also noted that progressives unseated staunch pro-Israel advocates like Reps. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) and Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), which gives the left more leverage. Not only did these wins send a message to leadership, it makes it safer for legislators who were previously on the fence to support the new legislation.
“When you think about moving legislation you’ve got to ask yourself ‘What are your numbers? Where are your votes?’” Ramirez said. “And I know how to count and the truth is we’re about to have the largest CPC ever.”
