Democrats re-elect Nancy Pelosi as House minority leader

Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, fell short in his effort to topple Nancy Pelosi as the Democratic House minority leader. She earned 134 votes to Ryan’s 63.

Longtime Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi won re-election Wednesday to the post, fighting off a challenge after calls for new leadership following the party’s crushing electoral disappointment.

“Everything we care about [is] at risk”, California Rep. Adam Schiff said in his nominating speech for Pelosi. “The role of leader is one of tactician, of negotiator, of knowing all the rules, of having all the tools to stand up when necessary to Donald Trump”, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Illinois) told the Washington Post. Maryland representative Steny Hoyer, 77, will continue to serve as Democratic whip, and South Carolina’s Jim Clyburn, 76, will continue in the number three spot as assistant leader.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi addresses the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia July 28, 2016. She was House speaker from 2007 to 2011. Ryan campaigned on a reform platform, promising to decentralize power from the five Democratic leadership positions and make the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee an elected position. Sánchez is also chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

There is a contest for the position of conference vice chair between two California Democrats, Linda Sanchez and Barbara Lee.

But while the Rust Belt congressman managed fewer than a dozen public endorsers, under the surface there was a fair amount of frustration both with Pelosi and with the general state of the party. Even more grumbled that rushing into it looked tone deaf.

And Pelosi disputed the suggestion that she might be concerned about the defections she suffered.

Nonetheless Pelosi projected confidence heading into the vote. Eleven members came out publicly to back him. “And I say that’s our fault”. But other saw it as a sign that Ryan was the type of Democrat who could win over working class voters better than someone from ultra-liberal San Francisco.

“Somebody had to do something”, said Ryan, a seven-term lawmaker who before now had been largely a back-bencher. (In more heartening news, Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) became the first Latina in House leadership as caucus vice-chairman.) Pelosi supporters like Reps. “We must focus our energies on charting a path for our caucus and the American people”.

Pelosi previously defeated a revolt in 2010 from then-Rep.

Gallego, who is set to begin his second term in Congress in January, said the party needed to choose a better messenger of its opposition to the incoming Trump administration. The White House has not formally weighed in. “She combines strong, progressive values with just extraordinary political skill”.