Well, she’s back. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has been officially re-nominated for House speaker. She joins her partner in crime Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), who was nominated to be House Majority Leader. The geriatric brigade is assembling. The push to block Pelosi is somewhat half-dead. Yes, Pelosi doesn’t have the 218 votes to clinch the speakership, but the Never Nancy wing has no alternative candidate. Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH), who said was mulling a challenge, decided to back out.
Other Democrats who signed the “hell no, Nancy” letter have flip-flopped. Even the anti-Pelosi faction doesn’t want a bloody leadership fight on the House floor when the time comes, so for all intents and purposes, Pelosi is going to be speaker (again). Yet, it doesn’t come without warning from within the Democatic tent. Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-NY), who has called for change in the leadership—Pelosi’s team hasn’t changed in over a decade—said that fellow party members who vote for Nancy will pay for it in 2020 (via NTK Network):
Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-NY) suggested on Tuesday that House Democrats who flipped Republican-held districts in the 2018 midterm elections will have “very difficult race[s] two years from now” if they support House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) bid to the next speaker.
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A reporter asked Rice if she thought that Pelosi should be rewarded for helping Democrats win 40 seats in the 2018 midterm elections.
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“They spoke to directly to their constituents and they won very difficult races, and they are going to have a very difficult race two years from now,” Rice continued. “It’s going to be made that much more difficult if we don’t show that we heard the voters and, you know, elect different people.”
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She’s not alone. The day after the 2018 midterms, The Washington Post noted how it would be difficultto defend their new gains.
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