On Election Night, when it was clear that Democrats had captured enough seats to take control of the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, who grew up in Crown Heights, strode to the microphone and gave a speech that included a coded shout-out to the folks back home. “We made it, Brooklyn. We made it,” he said. It was an unmistakable reference to a memorable moment of hip-hop lore, when homegrown rapper Notorious B.I.G., upon winning the 1995 Album of the Year award from The Source magazine, stormed onstage with a huge, high-fiving posse and shouted, “We did it, Brooklyn! We did it!”

In a history-making achievement, Jeffries is now on track to become the first Speaker of the House from New York City and the first Black speaker.

“It wasn’t simply a blue wave; it was an American tsunami,” Jeffries said at a press conference the morning after. “House Democrats have decisively taken back control of the Congress. We will win at least 255 seats, if not more, once every vote has been tallied. It’s a historic majority in the 21st century. The American people have chosen the economy over extremism. The American people have chosen hope over hatred. The American people have chosen common sense over corruption, chaos, and cruelty.”

And within the Democratic Party, the new House majority represents the victory of realism over rhetoric. For all the headlines given to the supposed influence of socialists and ultraprogressives, Jeffries’s majority was created by painstakingly recruiting and........

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