Steny Hoyer: Not ‘realistic’ for Democrats to require higher threshold for speaker vote

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., threw cold water on a petition by a handful of Democrats calling for a rule change that would require a candidate for speaker to secure a majority of the House in the party’s private caucus vote.

When Democrats choose a speaker or minority leader after the election, they’ll hold a private caucus vote before a floor vote at the start of the new Congress. Right now, whoever runs for speaker or leader only has to nail down a majority of the Democratic caucus and then a majority of the House on the floor. A number of Democrats, mainly those opposed to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s ongoing reign, are trying to change that threshold.