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Pelosi has led her caucus since 2003. Two years ago, she agreed to serve in office through 2022 at the latest, a move that may have cleared the way for her easy nomination on Wednesday.
FILE: US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (right) exits the US House of Representatives chamber after debate over the $ 484 billion extra aid package amid of the coronavirus pandemic at the United States Capitol in Washington, DC, on April 23, 2020. Image: AFP.
WASHINGTON – U.S. Democratic lawmakers elected 80-year-old Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday to bring the party into the Joe Biden era and preside over its narrow majority in the House as the most powerful person. congressional.
The highest-ranking woman in the history of the United States Congress, and the main nemesis of outgoing President Donald Trump on Capitol Hill, she had no opposition for the top job.
She was nominated in a virtual leadership election, the first of its kind as the nation grapples with the coronavirus pandemic.
Pelosi said she was “very, very honored” to accept the speaker nomination and vowed to take action to help “crush” the COVID-19 crisis.
What Congress addresses next “has to be about fairness in our economy, it has to be about fairness in our justice system,” he added. “Justice in our environment, environmental justice, justice in our health care.”
A formal House vote for the speaker’s seat comes in January, after the new session of Congress begins, and shortly before Biden takes office as the 46th president of the United States. He is expected to win.
Pelosi has led her caucus since 2003. Two years ago, she agreed to serve in office until 2022 at the latest, a move that may have cleared the way for her easy nomination on Wednesday.
The Democratic group in the House of Representatives, in a tweet, praised the nomination of their “fearless leader.”
But tensions have boiled. In the November 3 election, Democrats fell short of their stated goal of expanding their majority from 233-202, failed to topple a single Republican in office, and lost at least 10 seats.
A few closed races were still counted, but when the dust settles, Pelosi may find she leads the smallest majority in years.
While there have been calls within the ranks for new blood in the ideologically fractured conference leadership, the top three spots went to a trio of octogenarians led by Pelosi.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, 81, and House Majority Whip 80, James Clyburn, the highest-ranking black member, were also re-elected unopposed to their leadership positions.
The highest-ranking contested race was that of assistant to the president, the party’s number four position, and it is showing potential members of a new generation of Democratic leaders.
It pitches Congresswoman Katherine Clark, 57, and currently vice chair of the Democratic caucus, against the more progressive Democrat David Cicilline, 59, the first openly gay member of the House leadership.
Republicans during the campaign described their Democratic rivals as “radical” leftists seeking to defund the police and embrace socialism, a message they reiterated on Tuesday after their own House vote re-elected top Republican lawmakers, including the minority leader Kevin McCarthy.
The fight for America’s future is “truly a battle between freedom and socialism,” said Second Republican Steve Scalise.
“They saw voters across the country in all sorts of districts reject the socialist agenda that President Pelosi pushed for the past two years.
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