Pelosi Is Narrowly Reelected Speaker

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will lead a tighter majority this congressional session after the Democrats misplaced seats within the November election.

Erin Scott/Pool/AFP by way of Getty Images

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Erin Scott/Pool/AFP by way of Getty Images

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will lead a tighter majority this congressional session after the Democrats misplaced seats within the November election.

Erin Scott/Pool/AFP by way of Getty Images

Updated at 5:51 p.m. ET

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was narrowly reelected chief of the chamber on Sunday, persevering with her management of the Democratic majority at a time of questions concerning the path forward for Congress and who might take the gavel after her.

Pelosi garnered 216 votes Sunday, seven greater than the 209 for House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy of California.

Five House Democrats didn’t vote for Pelosi. Three voted current, whereas Maine Rep. Jared Golden forged a poll for Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth and Pennsylvania Rep. Conor Lamb voted for New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries.

In remarks, Pelosi instructed her fellow members that they “begin the new Congress during a time of extraordinary difficulty.” After the final Congress handed a reduction package deal in its waning days, she confused that lawmakers’ “most urgent priority will continue to be defeating the coronavirus.”

Pelosi additionally famous the variety of the 117th Congress.

“It gives me great pride,” she stated, “to serve as speaker of the most diverse House in American history, with a record-shattering 122 women, 100 years after women won the right to vote.”

A extra divided House

Democrats have a tighter majority after the November election, which meant there was little room for dissent for Pelosi to be reelected.

Pelosi, a California Democrat, is 80 and has served in Congress for 33 years. She hinted final 12 months that this is perhaps her remaining time period because the chief of the House. She has no clear inheritor obvious, and her closest deputies, Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland and Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, are 81 and 80, respectively.

Pelosi has sought to knit collectively a caucus divided between comparatively average suburban members and rather more liberal city ones. Although Democrats have preserved their majority, the speaker and her lieutenants presided over a web lack of seats within the 2020 election.

Democrats have groused amongst themselves concerning the causes of the losses in 2020. One grievance has been that the occasion’s failure to repudiate points stated to be perceived by voters as excessive, resembling “defund the police,” harm it with the average voters it sought amid the broader presidential election.

The most liberal members, together with New York Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, reject the concept Democrats’ messaging tacked too far left.

Managing the stress between the 2 sides can be an enormous problem as Pelosi continues her stewardship of the bulk.

The recreation has modified

Much of the speaker’s workload will shift, nonetheless, from resisting a Republican administration to serving to advance the targets of her fellow Democrat, President-elect Joe Biden. Pelosi seemingly will work each alternative out there to assist move Biden’s agenda, together with extra coronavirus reduction laws.

But the speedy focus in Washington and nationwide politics has shifted to the Senate, management of which is up for grabs relying on the end result of Tuesday’s runoff elections in Georgia. If Republicans protect their majority within the higher chamber, they’re going to seemingly forestall Biden and Pelosi from attaining lots of their goals.

Although it’s seen as a much less seemingly consequence, if Democrats win the Georgia races and provides the occasion a slim majority within the Senate, the entire ballgame will change, and Pelosi will march into her new time period as speaker with far better energy.