US Democrats re-elect Nancy Pelosi as House minority leader

Minnesota Rep. Tim Walz broke with fellow Democrats in his delegation to support Ryan.

Pelosi, who has led Democrats since 2003 and was the first female speaker of the House, faced the most significant opposition of her tenure.

Ryan won nearly a third of the caucus’s support in the secret ballot tally, pulling 63 votes to her 134.

U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, of Wisconsin, is refusing to say whether he voted for Nancy Pelosi to return as House minority leader.

“They weren’t defections”, she told CNN, “I got two-thirds of the vote”.

And she insisted Democrats would rebound.

However, Pelosi argued that Democrats know how to win elections and will do so again by making the differentiation between the values of their party and the incoming Trump administration. He was widely considered the underdog in the race to unseat Pelosi. The Democratic party will compromise its future if it concentrates only on big cities and on the coasts, he said.

“Those who are frustrated and discontent on January 3 or January 4, whenever, I am sure there will be 10 or 20”, he said.

A half-dozen Democrats were slated to deliver testimonials to Pelosi in nominating speeches, but the disenchantment was evident.

“We need the very best to lead us. It was a message: Hold on, change is coming”. “It’s the issue that unites us”, the OH lawmaker said after his loss.

“Our prospects have improved just because of this conversation”. “We won. We have a caucus, we have leadership that has to listen to us”. After the November 8 election, about two dozen members signed a letter asking Pelosi to bump back the caucus’s leadership election. As speaker in 2009 she steered Obama’s health care law through the House and also pushed through a divisive bill to cap carbon emissions, but Democrats suffered massive losses in midterm elections the next year and lost their majority.

Ryan, who has praised Pelosi and called her a mentor, said he ran in an attempt to expand what is now the smallest minority since 1929.

Ben Ray Luján, a Democratic congressman from northern New Mexico, will lead the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for a second election cycle in a row.

She had hoped to pick up 20 House seats this year and reported bringing in $35 million for Democratic candidates and committees in the third quarter of 2016. Steny Hoyer of Maryland and James Clyburn of SC. The position of conference chairman is term-limited, and Xavier Becerra of California is expected to be replaced by Joe Crowley of NY.

The California Democrat said she was “exhilarated” adding, “I have a spring in my step”. Tim Ryan, who promised a more inclusive Democratic Party that would move away from identity politics. “People vote their pocketbooks”, said Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Oregon. More than a third of the newly elected Democrats in the House come from three coastal states: California, Massachusetts and NY.