Nancy Pelosi’s allies in the House are starting to organize an effort to beat back insurgent Democrats who are trying to deny her the speaker’s gavel in the next Congress.
The California Democrat is facing a coup from 17 House Democrats who say they have the votes to deny her the title of House speaker, and at least two other Democrats appear soon to join that effort.
Pelosi so far has said she’s confident she can win 218 votes on the House floor to become the next speaker, but on Thursday, some of her allies made it clear they were nervous and ready to exert their influence to make sure that happens.
Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky., a Pelosi loyalist, predicted his side would fight back by blocking any other candidate offered up by defectors.
“It’s a real threat,” Yarmuth said of Pelosi’s opponents. “[But] she has enough loyalists, and I’m one of them, who can keep anybody else from being speaker, and then you could have a real standoff.”
Members have to ask themselves, Yarmuth said, “How much chaos do you want?”
Aside from organizing her Democratic friends, Pelosi is also angling to win the possible support of moderate House Republicans. Democratic members of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus are asking Pelosi to commit to process reforms in the House before they back her, and it’s possible some of the GOP members of that caucus could also support her.
Pelosi indicated she supports the reforms, and wrote in a letter to the nine Problem Solver Democrats that their ideas “offer a strong path forward to achieve a more functional, accountable, bipartisan House.”
Though the 17 Democratic rebels technically have the votes to prevent Pelosi from becoming speaker, Pelosi is working to peel off Democrats through reform pledges, committee assignments, and fundraising promises. Another ally of hers, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said Pelosi would ultimately get there.
“She’s going to have the votes,” DeLauro said. “She is a master counter of the votes. She will be the speaker.”
But the renegade Democrats are equally confident that they can prevent that from happening. No alternative candidate has officially announced a bid, but Ohio Democrat Marcia Fudge is floating a potential challenge. Either way, the 17 lawmakers have pledged to vote against her on the House floor.
“She does not have the votes right now,” Rep. Kathleen Rice, D-N.Y., told reporters Thursday. “Once it becomes clear to the leader that she’s not going to be able to get 218, I think you’re going to see more and more people throwing their hat in the ring.”
Virginia Democrat Gerry Connolly supports Pelosi, but admitted that her path to the speakership is “extremely narrow; it’s very close.”
Connolly added the anti-Pelosi faction doesn’t need to increase their number by much to “derail a nomination for speaker.”
On Thursday morning, Pelosi dismissed the 17 Democrats, arguing that a vote against her is a vote against women.
“Have you seen the letter?” Pelosi quipped. “Of the 17 it’s mostly like 14 men … if in fact there is any misogyny involved in it, it’s their problem not mine.”
