House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (CA) won the race to head up the Democratic caucus on Wednesday for an eighth term. Pelosi easily toppled Representative Tim Ryan (D-OH), a seven-term lawmaker, who launched a bid to lead House Democrats in response to the party’s disappointing November election results.
Pelosi is a successful fundraiser who has been the top House Democrat since 2002. She had predicted her party would retake the House but won only a handful of the roughly 30 seats needed.
Pelosi’s margin of victory was 134 votes to 63 for Ryan. However, many Democrats were stunned that almost a third of the caucus was willing to vote for Ryan, who has no major policy or political experience. Ryan’s 63 votes was the largest number of opposition votes Pelosi has faced in any leadership race since winning a deputy leadership position 15 years ago that lead her to becoming the first female House speaker.
Pelosi is 76, Minority Whip Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-MD) is 77 and Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-SC), the assistant to the leader, is 76. Hoyer and Clyburn were unchallenged. However, the number of votes that Ryan did received seems to indicate that the rank-and-file is ready for Pelosi to develop a transition-of-power plan.
With little drama, on November 15, Paul Ryan (R-WI) was unanimously chosen for another term as House speaker by his colleagues in the closed-door leadership elections. Ryan was often an odds with President-Elect Trump during the presidential campaign. However, he has pledged to work closely with Trump and has called for his party to unite behind the President-Elect.
Ryan faces an election by the full House in January, when the new Congress convenes. Ryan must win a majority of House members (218 votes) in order to keep his job as House speaker. Ryan was first elected speaker in October 2015 after former Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) retired as a result of growing criticism from the House Freedom Caucus and other conservatives.
Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA), and Republican Conference Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers were unanimously re-elected to their leadership jobs.
