PALMDALE, Calif. (AP) — This Choicehe warned, it was about the economy. Freedom. Stop Project 2025 and the MAGA extremes.

And after January 6, 2021 Attack on the Capitolit's about democracy.

And yet, Hakeem Jeffrieswho is looking to make history as the first black speaker of the House of Representatives, says he is choosing to remain quiet as Democrats work to take control of the House chaotic US House of Representatives from Republicans.

“In this unprecedented moment we find ourselves in, I have come to the conclusion that rest is a conscious choice,” Jeffries told The Associated Press during an interview at a park cafe Campaign stops in Southern California.

“We must continue to make the decision to remain calm, execute the plan and run through the finish line,” he said. “And then put it in the hands of the American people.”

Always tight, the campaign for Control of the house is a dispute playing out in unlikely corners of the country far removed from the presidential campaign, including Jeffries' home state of New York and California. A single contested seat among 435 could make the difference if Democrats manage to flip the majority and oust Republicans Mike Johnson from the speaker's office.

Never in the country's nearly 250-year history has a black American been so close to taking up the gavel. Jeffries, 54, belongs to a younger generation of leaders alongside the Democratic vice president Kamala Harriswhich proposes a new path forward, beyond the era of the former president, the Republicans Donald Trump.

But Jeffries, who was a lawyer before entering Congress, doesn't want to talk about the milestone of becoming House speaker, and he won't predict that Democrats will win the House majority. He now wants to speak to voters about the decisions.

“Everything that matters to us is at stake. Everything that is important to us is on the ballot. We can either move this country forward or turn back time,” he said early on a Sunday morning in the high desert community of Palmdale, the dusty foothills of Los Angeles County.

“We're not going back!” shouted the hundreds of volunteers ready to knock on doors to get the vote for Democrat George Whitesides in the race against Republican Rep. Mike Garcia.

Brooklyn-born Jeffries took over the Democratic leadership of the House of Representatives as speaker emeritus Nancy Pelosi stepped aside and named him heir to the throne of the Speaker's Bureau. He is poised to win the party's internal vote for leader again later this year, regardless of the election results. However, if Democrats win the majority, he would seek election as speaker of the full House of Representatives when the new Congress convenes in January.

As one of the party's most effective communicators, Jeffries' free speeches in the House of Representatives stand out among modern oratory and are brimming with cultural references of the time. He is sometimes compared to former President Barack Obama.

Now the congressman's skills and skill will be tested as he travels the country and raises funds for the party.

He is open and approachable to colleagues, methodical and even meditative, if sometimes slow to act, and is very meticulous in his advice. He appears to have told almost no one what he said to President Joe Biden when the two spoke privately during a meeting turbulent Julybefore the president announced his decision to withdraw from the race and support Harris.

“A rock,” said Rep. Grace Meng, a New York Democrat who considers Jeffries a mentor. “He takes everyone seriously.”

After traveling 25,000 miles and visiting more than 30 states to swing the House, Jeffries is proposing a “robust” Democratic agenda that he described as reducing the costs of inflation, creating better jobs and safer communities, and addressing the affordable housing crisis.

The Democratic-led House would vote to enshrine it Access to reproductive care in the wake of the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision, which upheld abortion rights in Roe v. Wade finished, he said. And it would overtake the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act expand and protect access to ballots.

While campaigning through California, Jeffries spent Saturday afternoon gathering voters at a banquet hall in Little Saigon in Orange County, near Disneyland, in one of the most hotly contested seats of the election cycle.

On Sunday, he was at one of the older black churches in the Lancaster area, in a neighborhood that residents said was a segregated part of the city. He urged the community to gather family and friends and “vote for enlightened leadership, for people who have your best interests at heart and want to work together.”

In many ways, Jeffries was already the de facto speaker of the House, the leader who could later be relied upon The Republicans kicked out Kevin McCarthy from the speaker's office and plunged the hall into chaos.

It was Jeffries who provided the Democratic votes to ensure Congress passed key legislation, including to prevent a government shutdown and arm Ukraine in the fight against Russia, when Johnson could not control his own GOP majority.

And it was Jeffries who saved Johnson's job as speaker and once again provided the Democratic votes needed to fend off far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's attempt to oust him.

Asked what kind of speaker he would be if the Democrats won, Jeffries said he had already shown it.

“'Putting people above politics' is not just a slogan,” he said of the party's message. “It was a defining way of life.”

Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, once the highest-ranking Black leader as House Democratic leader, said Jeffries' ascension to speaker would chart the nation's path “toward a more perfect union.”

“All of these are stepping stones,” he said. “And you keep going until you make a breakthrough. And I think we have a chance to make a breakthrough here.”

As the families played in a nearby park, Claudette Reynolds, a retired postal worker, saw Jeffries enter the Orange County cafe.

She rushed over to take a selfie and later narrated their conversation.

“I told him we were appointing him to be the next speaker of the House,” she said.