House Democratic Leadership Post

The challenge from Rep. Ryan will force Nancy Pelosi to incorporate a more inclusive leadership style, and also prompt her to propose the elevation of junior lawmakers within her party.

While Ryan’s fellow Ohioan Marcia Fudge publicly backed Ryan, Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Jefferson Township, voted for Pelosi.

Ryan said he was was pleased to get “20 more votes than anyone ever thought we’d be able to get”. She was once again selected as the minority leader in the house of representative. Pelosi had boasted going into the vote that she had support from two-thirds of the caucus, and she received just over the amount.

Despite the relative ease of Pelosi’s victory, the frustration and dissention that fueled Ryan’s bid is unlikely to dissipate quickly.

The House Democratic Caucus met behind closed doors this morning with Pelosi of San Francisco, Democratic leader since 2003, turning back the challenge of Ryan of Howland, D-13th. “I told him later it was nearly like he’d been to seminary, the way his voice rose and fell”. This wasn’t a rejection of Tim Ryan.

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. “Leader Pelosi has been here a long time”.

But Cleaver said he hopes Democrats will heed Ryan, who has spoken about the need for Democrats to have more leaders from “flyover country”.

The discontent was regional as well as generational.

Pelosi was previously House speaker for the party, boasting 12 years leading the House Democrats.

“When you see working-class people, blue-collar people, going and voting for Trump, that’s a failure of the Democratic Party because they felt like we didn’t care about them”, Ryan said earlier this month. “We won. We have a caucus, we have leadership that has to listen to us”.

In addition to Pelosi, Democrats re-elected Maryland Congressman Steny Hoyer as whip and South Carolina’s Jim Clyburn as assistant Democratic leader, both of whom were unchallenged, filling out the top three spots with people who’ve been in leadership roles for at least a decade. The 43-year-old has also pledged to decentralize power and reinvigorate the Democratic caucus’s aging leadership.

Some Democrats want the position to be contested rather than be a rubber stamp of whoever top Democrats select.

And she insisted Democrats would rebound. That includes raising wages and creating jobs for working families; protecting the progress we’ve made for women, minorities, and those in the LGBTQ community; and defending Americans from any President-elect Trump proposal that would threaten their rights or ability to provide for their loved ones.

Pelosi previously defeated a challenge in 2010 from then-Rep. While House Democrats increased their numbers by four, the party did not retake the Senate or hold onto the White House.

Trump’s upset came after he was able to win narrow victories in a handful of Rust Belt states, such as Ohio, Wisconsin and MI, delivering him the Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency.

Some House Democrats did not hide their disappointment at the outcome.

The House Democrats have just rendered their judgment: no problemo!

But 63 defectors against her is a tally that suggests her grip on the leadership is weakening. The Democratic leadership vote was supposed to be held two weeks ago but was postponed amid grumbling from some members about the need for further reflection on the election results.

“She’s one of the best vote-counters there is”. She predicted she’d get two-thirds.

“First of all, our national party has to change”, she said.