Longtime Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi is exceedingly confident that she’ll reclaim the House speakership despite calls throughout the campaign for her to step aside.
If Pelosi’s count is correct, and it usually is, she will be speaker again, eight years after making history as the first woman to wield the gavel. But before the final floor vote in January, a vocal and growing number of Democratic members will try again to topple her. The usual contingent of Pelosi defectors is holding a call Wednesday — less than 24 hours after Democrats seized the House — to discuss her ouster.
Pelosi appears unbothered by the threats, boasting before polls closed in West Coast races Tuesday night that Democrats would win and that she’d have the votes to be elected speaker for a second time. Democrats did win, flipping 27 seats as of Wednesday morning.
“Yes, I am,” Pelosi said Wednesday morning, when asked if she is positive she will become speaker. Standing in the same room of the Capitol she took a victory lap in after the 2006 Democratic takeover of the House, Pelosi kept her comments about her future short, refusing to take multiple questions on the subject.
“It’s not what you have done. It’s what you can do,” Pelosi said. “And I think I’m the best person to go forward to unify, to negotiate.”
And as detractors attempt to plot her demise, there’s one glaring question: Who will challenge her? No one has risen to the task, something Pelosi loyalists love to point out. And who better than Pelosi to handle the battle with President Trump, members like Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., pointedly ask her colleagues that are itching for a change.
“If it weren’t for Nancy Pelosi we wouldn’t have the Affordable Care Act,” Schakowsky said in an interview. “If it weren’t for Nancy Pelosi half the money that was raised for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — she raised it.”
Pelosi, heralded as one of the best vote counters in a generation, proved key in shepherding the signature healthcare law through the House and has deftly maneuvered budget negotiations while in the minority. Her loudest critics will praise her list of accomplishments but argue that at a time when voters are hungering for clear change in Washington, Democrats should start anew.
Assistant Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., rallied behind Pelosi as election results trickled in, putting to bed speculation that he might run against her — an idea floated by a number of Congressional Black Caucus members.
But the members against her continued leadership have refused to roll over, arguing that a number of the newly elected Democrats have made public vows to vote against her for speaker. As of Wednesday morning, Democrats captured 27 seats and are projected to pick up a few more. Out of the races officially called, at least 11 incoming freshman have said they would not support Pelosi.
“She will win,” said Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., a Pelosi confidant. “But it would be wrong for any of us to demand something of members that are coming in. And Nancy Pelosi is the first one to have said that as she was funding their campaigns for victory.”
If the incoming freshmen who have voiced opposition to Pelosi join with the roughly 10 current members who appear ready to vote against the California Democrat in the private caucus vote and on the floor, then Pelosi’s path to speaker becomes a bit more hazy.
“I do not think her re-election of speaker is a certain thing no matter what number of seats we win,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va. “She’s a very accomplished vote counter and persuader so I would never rule her out, but I don’t think it’s a certain thing at all — no matter what.”
Connolly, who is not among the usual defectors, wouldn’t say how he plans to vote, noting that Pelosi has yet to reach out to him.
Some members are urging Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, to run against Pelosi again. Ryan challenged her in 2016 and won 63 votes in the private caucus vote, but Pelosi easily won re-election on the floor and correctly predicted the percentage of her caucus that would stick with her.
“There is an effort to convince Tim Ryan to run for speaker,” said Rep. Filemon Vela, D-Texas. “However, I am hearing that there are several other candidates considering a run. I’ve talked to Tim personally and encouraged to do so.”
Before polls closed Tuesday, Ryan wouldn’t say if he planned to run against Pelosi.
“People are having conversations now,” Ryan said of a potential challenge. “They’re looking at what’s the best position for us moving forward — going into 2020 who is best positioned to lead the caucus to take on Donald Trump where we can, work with him where we can, and really position us to win some of these states back that we haven’t done well in.”
