A core group of agitators aiming to prevent Nancy Pelosi from retaking the speaker’s gavel regrouped Thursday evening and vowed to stick together after suffering repeated setbacks as some softened in opposition to the longtime House Democratic leader.
The group is determined to move forward as a bloc, according to multiple members in the group. To shield against Pelosi’s powers of persuasion, the rebel members agreed to not propose individual negotiations or meetings with the California Democrat unless they’ve huddled among themselves first.
Pelosi critics say they are open to negotiating with the minority leader and could come around to supporting her if she presents a definitive timeline for her departure. Barring that, they will block her from becoming speaker, confident that their coalition of 23 will hold.
“We don’t have to move,” said Oregon Democrat Kurt Schrader, a member of the so-called revolutionaries. “The ball’s in her court.”
After struggling to present a united front earlier in the week, the anti-Pelosi faction claims to have worked out the kinks.
“We’re all in this together,” Schrader told the Washington Examiner. “We had a little discussion, we’re not going to be cowboying it on our own anymore, it’s going to be a group effort.”
“No one-off negotiations without letting the other members of the group know what’s going on,” Schrader added.
A source close to the insurgent Democrats said “a core group of the members met yesterday and essentially all reaffirmed that they’re still firm no votes on the floor.”
Days earlier, one of the group’s ringleaders, Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., proposed the agitators could be persuaded to back Pelosi if she came up with a succession plan — not just for herself but her top two deputies. The idea took some of the renegade Democrats by surprise, sowing confusion among the group. And days later, as Pelosi won her party’s speaker nomination with overwhelming support from her caucus (203 members), other insurrectionists decided to talk to Pelosi on their own.
By Friday morning, two more Pelosi opponents appeared to be wavering, according to a New York Times report. Democratic Reps. Bill Foster of Illinois and Ed Perlmutter of Colorado said they were open to eventually backing Pelosi, but Schrader refuted the report. Perlmutter “approached” Schrader and other dissenters Friday morning and said the report was “wrong.”
“Ed is in active conversations with Leader Pelosi, but he is only open to supporting her if the conversations result in some kind of an agreement about a transition,” said Perlmutter spokesperson Ashley Verville.
Foster, who also signed the letter pledging opposition to Pelosi on the floor, wouldn’t say if he has upcoming meetings with Pelosi to discuss the conditions of his support. “These sort of discussions are best kept private,” he said.
“We need to have some transparency on a succession plan for really the top three leadership positions,” Foster said Friday, adding that it’s “nothing personal” against Pelosi.
Pelosi met with a trio of defectors moments before she clinched the speaker nomination Wednesday, but the conversation proved futile. Democratic Rep. Kathleen Rice of New York attended the meeting and issued a statement blasting Pelosi afterward, claiming the Californian outright dismissed the concerns of her opponents. Discussion of a possible succession plan never got off the ground.
The detractors want a “definitive” timeline from Pelosi that shows she will be gone “long before 2020,” according to Schrader.
It’s a proposal that Pelosi, at least right now, is not entertaining.
“Between saying when I’m going to retire or not? I don’t think so,” Pelosi told reporters Friday. “This will be resolved. I don’t think, by the way, they should be putting timelines on a woman speaker.”
Pelosi has a month to peel off defectors before the new Congress elects a speaker in January, and she effectively took down her third mark this week — all but sealing a deal with one of her original detractors, Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass. She’s not alone in her effort, utilizing loyal members to assuage those deserters who declared in a letter to vote against the longtime Democratic leader on the floor.
Rep. Jan Schakowksy, D-Ill., is one of the multiple Pelosi allies working to persuade dissenters to give up on the rebellion and rejoin the majority of the caucus.
“I just talked to — and I’m not going to mention the name — someone who is on the original letter a name that hasn’t come up yet, who is moving toward support for her,” Schakowsky told the Examiner on Friday. “I feel more and more confident.”
Right now, the math favors Pelosi’s opponents. She can only lose 17 Democrats in January if every member of Congress votes and Republicans don’t lend her support. To succeed, Pelosi can flip roughly six detractors or flip less and convince others to vote present — a tactic that would lower the threshold needed to secure the speaker’s gavel.
Longtime Pelosi critic, Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, said any insurgent who pulls an about-face will have to explain that to their constituents.
“I can’t get anything, I don’t want anything, I don’t need anything, so I’m a no,” Ryan said Friday. “The organizing principle is vote your conscience, vote your district, and let the chips fall.”
