Oelosi faces battle for speaker’s gavel
WASHINGTON — Nancy Pelosi won’t have much time to relish her party’s takeover of the House.
Though she played a key role in helping Democrats regain the majority for the first time since 2011, Pelosi faces a new battle: regaining the speaker’s gavel amid grumbling from a growing minority of rank-and-file Democrats about the need for new leadership.
The San Francisco Democrat, who has led her party in the House since 2003 including four years as speaker, said Wednesday that she’s confident she will be elected speaker again.
“I don’t think anybody deserves anything,” Pelosi said, a reference to President Donald Trump’s comment Wednesday that she “deserves” the job. “It’s not about what you have done. It’s about what you can do. And I think I’m the best person to go forward to unify, to negotiate.”
If elected as speaker, Pelosi becomes the highest-ranking Democratic official in the country and the face of the party until a 2020 presidential nominee emerges.
But the job — which will largely be decided Nov. 28 by an internal party vote — isn’t in the bag yet. A final House floor vote won’t be held until Jan. 3.
Several Democrats, including some incoming lawmakers, publicly distanced themselves during the midterm campaign from Pelosi, who is vastly unpopular with conservatives and less so with progressive liberals. Republicans successfully used her as an electoral wedge issue, forcing Democratic candidates to take a stand on whether they would vote for Pelosi as speaker if given the chance.
About three dozen Democratic candidates in competitive races came out against Pelosi to varying degrees, according to surveys of news reports, but the vast majority of them are not expected to win their elections. As of Wednesday afternoon, 11 had won. An additional six are in races that haven’t been called. There are also a handful of sitting members who have voiced opposition to Pelosi’s speakership, including Reps. Tim Ryan of Ohio, Kathleen Rice of New York and Conor Lamb of Pennsylvania.
Moves to topple Pelosi are nothing new but rose dramatically in recent years, and especially as Democrats’ opportunity to take the House emerged. Critics have long pushed for new leadership, but Pelosi’s effectiveness and fundraising prowess have typically allowed her to beat back challengers.
During the campaign, Pelosi insisted that Democratic candidates in competitive House districts were free to distance themselves from her if needed. Winning the seat, she said, was the top priority.
Now the question will be whether Pelosi will have enough votes to be elected speaker without those Democratic rebels, or whether she can persuade some of them to support her after all.