Rep.-elect Sharice Davids, D-Kan., announced Saturday that she would support House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s bid to become speaker in the next Congress, helping to shore up support for the California Democrat to control the gavel in the new year.
“Kansans didn’t elect me to go to Washington to play political games and take symbolic protest votes. They elected me to get things done,” Davids wrote in a statement. “The best way to move forward as we face unprecedented threats to our healthcare access and to our democracy is to unite behind the person who is clearly going to become the next speaker, and who, whatever differences we may have, will stand up to those threats.”
[Opinion: Democrats would be nuts to oust Nancy Pelosi]
I will vote for @NancyPelosi for Speaker of the House. Here’s why: https://t.co/LawmWklg8k
— Sharice Davids (@sharicedavids) November 24, 2018
Davids and Rep.-elect Deb Haaland, D-N.M., this month became the first Native American women ever elected to Congress. Davids, a lawyer and former mixed martial arts fighter, is also her state’s inaugural LGBT member of its congressional delegation. She had been initially reticent to declare who she would back for the speakership.
Davids joins other incoming representatives to publicly endorse Pelosi, including Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. Her support comes as Pelosi faces two groups of House Democrats unwilling to vote for her in a private conference meeting set for next week or a floor vote in January. One band consists of 15 Democratic lawmakers who signed a letter detailing their refusal to back the long-term leader, citing a need for change. The other resistance movement is being driven by nine Democrats belonging to the House Problem Solvers Caucus, who want to trade their endorsement for reforms to the lower chamber’s rules.
Pelosi needs a majority of 218 votes to return to the position of speaker, having previously filled the role from 2007 to 2011.
