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Nancy Pelosi elected House speaker as Democrats prepare to wield new powers

By Mutala Yakubu
Nancy Pelosi elected House speaker as Democrats prepare to wield new powers
Nancy Pelosi elected House speaker as Democrats prepare to wield new powers
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Nancy Pelosi has been officially elected House Speaker.



The results of the vote on House floor: 220 votes for Pelosi. Republican leader Kevin McCarthy got 192 votes, 18 members voted for someone else, and three voted present.

More context from the Guardian’s Ben Jacobs:

Pelosi won election to be Speaker by a comfortable margin. Only 15 Democrats ended up defecting after a number of newly elected members ran for the House pledging to oppose Pelosi.

Pelosi, who had previously served as Speaker from 2007-11, became the first former Speaker to win re-election to the job since Sam Rayburn in 1955.

The California Democrat had faced dissent from within her caucus. A number of Democrats had long called for new leadership. However, through a series of concessions including term limits for serving as Speaker, she won over key dissents like Seth Moulton of Massachusetts and Tim Ryan of Ohio.

The opposition to Pelosi manifested itself in different ways. Three Democrats voted present (including the newly elected Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey who first attempted to vote “no” which was not an option).

Others backed a variety of candidates. There were three votes for incoming DCCC chair Cheri Bustos of Illinois, two for Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and other votes cast for figures as varied as former Vice President Joe Biden and Stacey Abrams, the losing Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Georgia.

Republican Kevin McCarthy faced less dissent in his own caucus as a number of members of the hard-right Freedom Caucus supported his candidacy and only handful of Republicans voted for Jim Jordan, the leader of that group. Jordan himself voted for McCarthy.

One Democratic aide hailed Pelosi as a “mastermind” for her comfortable win and noted “all of us are amazed by how easy today’s vote will be for her.”

The aide noted though that unlike Pelosi’s first stint as speaker “managing this caucus will be more difficult than back in 2007.”

Source: guardian