How Hakeem Jeffries Learned to Fight Dirty

The televised debate concluding the 2000 race for a Brooklyn seat in the New York State Assembly was just heating up when a 29-year-old lawyer with bright eyes, a carefully groomed mustache and a sharp tongue named Hakeem Jeffries went for the takedown.

“The issue in this race is not age,” he said. “Yes, my opponent is older; I’m younger. It’s not religion. Yes, the assemblyman is a practicing Muslim, and I grew up in the Cornerstone Baptist Church.”

His opponent, a 20-year Democratic veteran of the State Assembly named...