Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has picked off a Democrat critical to the insurgent movement against her, brokering an apparent deal with Rep. Marcia Fudge of Ohio in exchange for her support.
Pelosi promised Fudge the chairmanship of a House Administration subcommittee on elections when Democrats take the majority next year, and like clockwork, Fudge released an statement of support for Pelosi and her top two deputies seconds later.
[Opinion: Marcia Fudge doomed her run for speaker before it even began]
“Last week, I announced that I was strongly considering a run for speaker of the House,” Fudge wrote in a statement Tuesday. “I now join my colleagues in support of the leadership team of Pelosi, [Steny] Hoyer and [Jim] Clyburn.”
Hoyer and Clyburn are running for the spots right behind Pelosi — majority leader and majority whip. Pelosi assured Fudge that she would have the ability to ensure protections under the Voting Rights Act would “be reinstated and improved.”
“She has also assured me that the most loyal voting bloc in the Democratic party, Black women, will have a seat at the decision-making table,” Fudge said, one day after a faction she helped create released a letter vowing to oppose Pelosi on the floor.
On Monday, 16 Democrats vowed to vote against Pelosi in a January floor vote for speaker, regardless of the outcome of a private caucus vote set for Nov. 28. The move is a bold one that could deny Pelosi the speaker’s gavel and send the newly empowered Democratic caucus into a family brawl.
Fudge notably removed her name off the final version of the letter released Monday. Those itching for new leadership had been urging Fudge to launch a campaign against Pelosi.
Fudge’s decision to back current leadership now leaves the anti-Pelosi faction without a potential challenger, though Pelosi’s critics have long argued that they don’t need a candidate to take her down.
