Pelosi easily clears party’s first hurdle
Dem nominee still has to wrap up House speaker’s job
WASHINGTON — House Democrats overwhelmingly selected San Francisco Rep. Nancy Pelosi as the party’s nominee for speaker Wednesday, but she still has work to do to lock in the votes to reclaim the position she lost eight years ago.
Pelosi won the yes-or-no vote by a far greater margin than when she last prevailed in a party leadership election two years ago. However, the number of Democrats who voted against her Wednesday was far more than Pelosi can afford to lose when the full House elects a speaker Jan. 3.
Pelosi and her supporters said they were confident she can line up the support she needs over the next five weeks.
“I think we’re in pretty good shape,” Pelosi said. “We go forward with confidence and humility . ... Are there dissenters? Yes, but I expect to have a powerful vote as we go forward.”
The vote Wednesday was 203 to 32, with three blank ballots and one Democrat absent. The election was conducted in secret among members who will be in next year’s Congress and included delegates and territory representatives, who cannot vote next month.
The vote of the Democratic caucus was never in suspense, as Pelosi ran unopposed and with a clear majority of support of her colleagues. But it was the first opportunity to gauge exactly how
“I think we’re in pretty good shape. We go forward with confidence and humility . ... Are there dissenters? Yes, but I expect to have a powerful vote as we go forward.”
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco
many members she will need to win over to regain the speakership she lost when the Tea Party wave of 2010 gave Republicans the House.
Unlike all other leadership positions, the speakership requires a majority of the full House — 218 votes if all members cast ballots.
Democrats are on track to hold 235 seats, meaning Pelosi can afford to lose no more than 17 party members on the floor. She has said she will not accept Republican votes and they are not likely, although President Trump has offered to recruit some for her.
Although 32 Democrats voted against Pelosi on Wednesday, only 16 have signed a public letter pledging to oppose her in the House. Some of the signers continue to negotiate with Pelosi behind the scenes.
Also, members often vote against a nominee in caucus, but then support the winner on the floor. In 2016, Pelosi defeated Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio by a vote of 134 to 63 in the caucus for the Democratic leader’s job. All but four Democrats then voted for her for speaker in the House.
Ryan is among the 16 Democrats publicly promising to vote against Pelosi this time. However, he and other dissident Democrats have failed to recruit anyone to run against her.
Ryan and two other opposition leaders — Reps. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts and Kathleen Rice of New York — met with Pelosi on Wednesday, but no deal was struck. A Democratic aide familiar with the meeting said Pelosi “listened closely to the trio’s concerns.”
Rice, however, said the meeting was “not terribly productive.”
Dissident Democrats primarily want the 78-year-old Pelosi to spell out a plan for eventually stepping aside. Pelosi and her allies have dismissed the idea that she would make herself a lame duck.
“I think there were no surprises inside today,” Rice said. “We knew that she was going to get the majority of votes. But what it also established very clearly is what we’ve been saying all along, which she does not have the ability to get 218 on the floor.”
Pelosi cleared one obstacle from her path Wednesday in striking a deal with a group of Democratic and Republican lawmakers who call themselves the Problem Solvers Caucus. They had pushed for rules changes they say will make it easier for members to get bills moving in Congress without leadership backing.
And despite the opposition group’s confidence, other Democrats said their effort was sputtering.
Pelosi “got 85 percent of the vote. I think that’s pretty compelling,” said Rep. Jackie Speier of San Mateo. “You have to understand the mind of a politician. Even when they lose, they want to be able to identify their indignation, and that’s what you got (in) there. I would be very surprised if that number doesn’t dwindle to something that would be more like eight to 10.”
Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky said opposition was “crumbling by the minute.”
“How do you justify the fact that you would still try to bring down the woman who received 203 votes in the Democratic caucus?” Schakowsky said. “They would have to have demonstrated a great deal more support for their coup.”
Rep. Brian Higgins of New York, who signed the antiPelosi letter and then backed off after she cut a deal with him to push an infrastructure bill and try to increase Medicare eligibility, said now is the time for others to come around as well.
“I think 203 votes is a lot at this particular point,” Higgins said. “Others will see an opportunity to negotiate toward the goal of some larger public policy objectives and backtrack.”