Scoop: Cori Bush won't commit to voting for Jeffries in 2027 if she wins her seat back (axios.com)

Former Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), in an interview with Axios on Friday, declined to commit to voting for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) as speaker if she wins back her old House seat. Why it matters: Bush joins dozens of candidate s — particularly Democratic Socialists of America members and their allies — who are stopping short of committing to a Jeffries speakership. Even Congress' most left-wing members have told Axios they expect Jeffries to get the speaker's gavel if Democrats take the majority — mainly because nobody in the caucus would dare challenge him. But many progressives vying for House seats have said they are not satisfied with Jeffries' leadership and signaled that, at the very least, they are not going to give something for nothing. What they're saying: "The leader conversation is not anywhere near anything I'm thinking on right now," Bush said when asked if she would vote for Jeffries in 2027. Bush added that she is "making sure I get what's needed for my community on the ground because I have an incumbent who is not delivering for St. Louis," reiterating that the speaker vote is "not even something that I'm thinking about." The former congresswoman voted for Jeffries on the 15 speaker ballots in January 2023 and the additional four ballots later that October — as did all other Democrats serving at the time. Now she has harsher words for Democratic leadership, telling Axios, "We have an administration that is causing destruction every single day on our communities, and we are not meeting the moment." "The moment has not been met. They have not learned their lesson. The Trump administration has not learned, 'don't touch our communities.' What they've learned is, 'you've got this,'" she added. Bush said that she was "flipping over table by table last time" she was in office, but that, if she is elected again, "it's time to flip over two tables at a time." Catch up quick: Bush served two terms in the House after defeating longtime Rep. Lacy Clay (D-Mo.) in a 2020 primary challenge to his left. She was associated with the left-wing "Squad" during her time in office and positioned herself as an occasional progressive detractor from President Biden and Democratic leadership. She most notably slept outside the U.S. Capitol to get the administration to extend a COVID-era eviction moratorium. She later emerged as one of Congress' most outspoken critics of U.S. involvement in the war in Gaza. She lost her primary to now-Rep. Wesley Bell (D-Mo.) in 2024 amid allegations of campaign finance violations and a barrage of spending against her from AIPAC . The other side: Bell campaign manager Jordan Blase, in a statement to Axios, pointed to Bush's criticism of then-Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in the lead-up to the 2024 election. "Now she refuses to support Hakeem Jeffries, who is in line to be the first Black Speaker of the House," Blase said. "Cori only cares about Cori. And she doesn't care who she throws under