Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md, has blasted the “small group” of Democrats who oppose making Nancy Pelosi the new Speaker of the House of Representatives, saying that the party’s election victory last week had “obliterated” their argument.
Cummings, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, urged his colleagues to support Rep. Pelosi, D-Calif., in her bid to become Speaker of the House for the second time.
“For two years, they asserted that with Nancy Pelosi as our leader, Democrats could never win back the House. They claimed that these relentless Republican attacks made Leader Pelosi appear too divisive, and they argued that she should step aside for the good of the party,” Cummings wrote of the faction of Democrats opposed to Pelosi in a letter to colleagues on Monday.
“But then last Tuesday happened. And the American people obliterated the theory that Nancy Pelosi could not lead House Democrats to victory.”
Democrats including incoming Reps. Jason Crow of Colorado and Abigail Spanberger of Virginia have said they will oppose Pelosi during a vote on the floor. Others have indicated they are not in favor of Pelosi becoming speaker, but haven’t signaled whether they will back her during a floor vote.
[Also read: Trump suggests GOP might help Pelosi become speaker: ‘She has earned this great honor!’]
According to Cummings, Democrats should “present their views persuasively” and “vote their conscience” during the Democratic caucus to determine a candidate for speaker, but said Democrats must unite once a candidate emerges.
“Our new members promised to get results on the issues their constituents care about — not to delay these efforts while they are dragged into a self-destructive leadership battle,” Cummings wrote in the letter, first obtained by Politico.
“When the new Congress is sworn in on January 3, I urge Democrats to unite behind the candidate we select later this month to represent our values and to demonstrate to the nation that we can govern,” Cummings said.
Pelosi is currently running for speaker unopposed and has previously said she is “100 percent” certain she will be speaker of the house in the next Congress.
“In the next few weeks, we need to be unified, find common ground with Republicans in our legislative engagements, but stand our ground when we must,” Pelosi wrote to Democratic lawmakers Monday.
