Democrats resoundingly nominate Pelosi as speaker
Some in party still plan fight as talks continue in House
WASHINGTON — Rep. Nancy Pelosi overwhelmingly won the Democratic nomination on Wednesday to be speaker when the new Congress convenes in January, but the defection of 32 Democrats signaled that she could still face a divisive fight to lead the House just as the party assumes control.
The result kept alive the threat of a messy intraparty feud and touched off what promises to be an intense period of internal arm-twisting and cajoling by a leader renowned for both. At the same time, it confirmed that despite a drumbeat of calls within her caucus for new leadership, most Democrats support returning the 78-year-old Californian, the first woman to be speaker, to the post.
In a secret-ballot vote that dramatized rifts among Democrats only weeks after midterm election victories handed them the majority, Pelosi, running unopposed, won support from 203 Democrats. Beyond the 32 no votes, three ballots were left blank. With Democrats so far in control of 234 seats for the next Congress, Pelosi can afford to lose no more than 16 Democrats in the Jan. 3 roll call vote if all lawmakers are present and voting. That margin may change as additional races are called.
“It’s a big victory,” she exulted as she made her way to the Capitol after the results were announced, brushing aside questions about her detractors and saying she felt “great.”
To become speaker, Pelosi must win 218 votes in a House floor vote on Jan. 3. That gives opponents time to recruit a serious challenger, something they have said could occur only once they showed that she lacked the votes to be elected. But the tally also demonstrated the limits of a group of dissidents who want fresh faces at the top of the party.
Speaking with reporters as the votes were tallied, Pelosi hinted that she expected her opposition to erode.
“I think we’re in pretty good shape,” she said. “I don’t want to make other people’s announcements for them, but we go forward with confidence and humility.”
But Pelosi still faces determined opposition from others, including members of a group of 16 Democrats who signed a letter last week calling for new leadership. Their three leaders met with the minority leader before the vote on Wednesday and emerged declaring themselves unmoved.
Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, an organizer of the group, said their request of Pelosi had always been: “Produce a meaningful plan for a leadership transition, as you promised in the summer, to allow a new generation of leadership to step forward.”
He said he was “disappointed to report that no agreement was reached in this initial meeting,” but “hopeful” of continuing talks with Pelosi.
Along with Pelosi, Democrats moved unanimously to return their other two top leaders, forgoing a vote and electing Rep. Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, 79, as the majority leader and Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, 78, as the whip.
Still, the election did yield the promise of a new generation of leaders. Democrats chose Rep. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico, the 46-year-old chief of the party’s House campaign committee, for the fourth-ranking position of assistant majority leader. And Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, 48, of New York, who has been a leading voice in favor of generational change within the party, was elected chairman of the caucus, the No. 5 post.