Nancy Pelosi, the highest-ranking woman in the history of American politics, was re-elected as Speaker of the House.
Washington, United States:
Nancy Pelosi, the sole speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, was narrowly re-elected Sunday into a deeply divided new Congress that met in the final weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency.
Pelosi, 80, faced a scare when five fellow Democrats defected and voted “present” or for someone else during the vote.
But the woman who ranks third in the presidency secured her fourth, and perhaps last, non-consecutive term as Speaker of the House by garnering 216 votes to 209 for Republican leader Kevin McCarthy.
In a symbolic gesture, McCarthy formally handed the mallet to Pelosi.
“We started the new Congress at a time of extraordinary difficulty,” Pelosi told the camera, noting the balance of 350,000 deaths and 20 million infected by Covid-19.
“Our most urgent priority will continue to be defeating the coronavirus,” Pelosi said in a mask. “And beat him, we will.”
The vote took hours, as lawmakers had to vote in groups of several dozen due to social distancing rules imposed during the coronavirus pandemic.
Pelosi has been Trump’s main nemesis in Congress, and the two clashed bitterly in the past two years, particularly when she brought impeachment charges against the president.
Trump was indicted in December 2019, but the Senate acquitted him in early 2020. His successor, Joe Biden, will take office on January 20.
With Pelosi struggling to keep her job, it was a handful of progressive lawmakers or elected members who criticized her leadership, but ultimately voted for her on Sunday.
Among them were Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the highest-profile Democrats in Washington, and incoming lawmaker Cori Bush, who is the first African-American woman to represent Missouri in Congress.
There are normally 435 seats in the House, but only 427 votes were cast on Sunday, as some elected congressmen are in quarantine due to Covid-19 and a close race for the House in New York has not yet been formally decided.
An elected congressman from Louisiana, Luke Letlow, died of complications from Covid-19 last week, days before his scheduled oath date.
That leaves Democrats with one of the smallest House majorities in decades, 222 to 211 with two vacancies.
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