Pelosi clears first step toward regaining House speakership
WASHINGTON — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday easily won the support of a majority of next year’s House Democrats to become the party’s nominee for speaker, rebuffing attempts from a faction of rebel lawmakers who were pushing for new leadership.
Pelosi’s real test of whether she can regain the gavel will come Jan. 3, when she will need the vast majority of Democrats to support her on the House floor for the final vote to elect a speaker.
The California Democrat secured 203 votes from 239 possible participants, or about 85 percent of the caucus. Thirty-two Democrats voted no, three cast blank ballots and one person was absent.
It marked a significant victory for Pelosi, and a prominent sign she will be able to reclaim the job she lost in 2011.
No candidate emerged to challenge Pelosi, leaving the anti-Pelosi coalition to fizzle. Pelosi also worked hard to court her critics. Before the vote, she struck a deal Wednesday with nine members of the so-called Problem Solvers caucus to change some House rules that they say will make it easier to bring bipartisan legislation to the House floor. The group had withheld their votes for Pelosi for speaker over the changes.
She has garnered the endorsements of dozens of liberal activist groups and other Democratic lawmakers. She has been holding oneon-one meetings with returning and newly elected Democrats. Pelosi flipped the only opponent who floated a challenge, Rep. Marcia Fudge of Ohio, into a supporter by offering her a key subcommittee chairmanship.
“I think we’re in pretty good shape,” Pelosi said Wednesday, regarding the Jan. 3 vote.
Behind the scenes, her allies expressed even greater confidence. They argue that there are plenty of Democrats who voted against Pelosi on Wednesday who will support her on the floor next month.
With California Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy elected last week as minority leader, a victory by Pelosi would mark the first time that both House leaders will be from the same state.
Since Republicans plan to rally around McCarthy in the speaker vote, Pelosi will need to get the support of 218 Democrats, leaving little room for opposition in her own ranks.
Two years ago, Pelosi lost 63 votes inside her caucus to become the House minority leader, but lost only four Democratic votes on the House floor.
Her supporters Wednesday derided the effort to defeat Pelosi.
“It’s kind of this phantom campaign that’s being run and not very successfully,” said Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier of California, a Pelosi ally.
Some of Pelosi’s one-time opponents said a challenger would have had to announce a campaign by the time Democrats voted in their caucus if he or she would have any chance of beating Pelosi on the House floor.
Rep. Stephen F. Lynch, D-Mass., who signed a letter with 15 other Democrats promising to oppose Pelosi, all but admitted defeat late Tuesday and acknowledged that the majority of Democrats want Pelosi.