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House Democrats re-elect Pelosi as leader despite party’s staggering losses

House Democrats renewed Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s lease on power Wednesday, voting to keep her as party leader.
She faced her toughest challenge yet in her 14 years at the helm, ceding more than 60 votes to Rep. Tim Ryan, a 43-year-old Ohio Democrat who said the party had lost touch with middle America and needed a shake-up to begin connecting — and winning — again.
Mrs. Pelosi’s backers agreed that the party must do more to reconnect with voters in the “flyover” states but said Democrats’ problems are the fault of others. They said the 76-year-old has the political mettle and fundraising prowess to be what one lawmaker called their “comeback leader.”
“This is a time, I think, that we need someone who is battle-tested. And there is no stronger battle-tested person than Nancy Pelosi,” said Rep. Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland.
Mrs. Pelosi won on a 134-63 vote, held behind closed doors.
Democrats also kept the rest of their top leadership, electing Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, 77, of Maryland to the No. 2 job of whip, and Rep. James E. Clyburn, 76, of South Carolina to the No. 3 post of assistant leader.
That lineup hasn’t changed in a decade, as the party won a majority in the 2006 elections then watched it slip away in 2010 and failed to take it back in the three elections since, despite twice winning the presidential popular vote.
Emerging after her victory, Mrs. Pelosi told reporters that she had “a special spring in my step today” and said she could craft a winning message that reaches all parts of the country.
“We know how to win elections,” she said. “We’ve done it in the past. We will do it again.”
Mr. Ryan did manage to force some changes. Mrs. Pelosi signaled that she would try to give more junior members a bigger say in decisions.
Mrs. Pelosi has become one of the more polarizing figures in Washington since taking over in 2003 as leader of the House Democratic Caucus.
She became the first female speaker of the House in 2007 and watched over the party as its majority grew to 256 seats in 2009.
Mrs. Pelosi, in announcing her bid to keep her position, said she had the support of two-thirds of her Democratic colleagues — and she ended up with almost exactly that tally.
As the vote neared, Mrs. Pelosi rolled out a series of changes to caucus rules aimed at giving junior lawmakers more say. But more experienced members, particularly those in the Congressional Black Caucus, said the proposed changes were unfair because they punished seniority.


 


Source: The Washington Times, November 30, 2016

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