JUST IN: Pelosi Reelected Speaker of the House By Narrow Margin
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Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) will hang on to that title for at least two more years, after winning a narrow majority of votes.
The 2020 election may have brought the defeat of President Donald Trump, but it also reduced the Democrats’ majority control of the House.
Pelosi secured the votes for her fourth term as Speaker with just 8 votes to spare, defeating Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) 216 to 208. The Republican House members unanimously voted for McCarthy, but Pelosi had a few defecting Democrats voting “present” and there were concerns before the vote about absences due to Covid.
In the end, the House members voted in groups of about 72 at a time to facilitate social distancing and Pelosi was able to hold on to a majority. Pelosi made history in 2006 when she became the first female Speaker, but has faced growing criticism from her caucus, some wanting a change from the now 80-year-old Speaker, and others wanting a more progressive strategy.
Pelosi has made comments recently that suggest this will be her last term as Speaker, and that seems to have helped solidify her support. No Democrat officially put forward their name to challenge her, and she won the votes of even some of the younger progressive members, like newly-elected Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY).
The first few weeks of her new term are expected to be turbulent.
Control of the Senate comes down to the outcome of two runoff elections for Georgia’s Senate seats on January 5.
The normally-perfunctory counting and certification of the Electoral College votes scheduled for January 6 has taken on heightened drama after several Republicans in both chambers have voted to oppose the vote, although it is not expected that they will have anywhere near enough votes to actually overturn it.
President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’ inauguration is set for January 20, while Trump and his allies continue to promote baseless claims of election fraud.
The debate over stimulus checks continues, with the last Congress’ bill that provided $600 checks being signed into law and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocking attempts to raise that amount to $2,000. This was one issue where Pelosi and the Democrats found themselves in the curious position of agreeing with Trump, who unsuccessfully tried to get Republicans on board. Nonetheless, Biden is expected to be supportive of increased stimulus checks.
