By Felicia Sonmez and Mike DeBonis / The Washington Post
WASHINGTON — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who won her party’s nomination Wednesday to serve as House speaker in the next Congress, still has work to do to secure the necessary votes to reclaim the gavel.
Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., who voted against Pelosi in 2017 but had remained mum so far on how he plans to vote this year, said Thursday that he will not support Pelosi in January’s floor vote for speaker.
“If she’s interested in peeling off the 16 or 17 that she needs right now, she’s probably better off burning up the phone lines with other members,” Kind said. “We still have a month to go and I still think she has a math problem.”
Thirty-two Democrats opposed Pelosi’s nomination on Wednesday. She will need to persuade about half of them to back her if she is to win the full House vote for speaker.
Kind said that while he has “great admiration” for Pelosi and has recently had discussions with her, voters in his district, which President Donald Trump won by five percentage points in 2016, are “looking for change in both parties.”
He added that Democrats should also think about the message they are sending to the dozens of newly-elected members of their caucus.
“Do they really have to stick around here for 30, 40 years before they have a chance at a gavel? That’s really the message we’re sending them today,” he said.
Kind notably was not among the lawmakers who signed a letter this month vowing to oppose Pelosi, in a sign that the California Democrat may face resistance from some members of her party who have not openly voiced their views.
DelBene, Heck lose out on DCCC leadership
House Democrats also announced the results of several other leadership contests Thursday.
Rep. Cheri Bustos of Illinois bested two other candidates to become chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the party’s campaign arm.
The decision to elevate Bustos, a moderate lawmaker representing a district that voted for Trump, breaks with the traditional practice in both parties of choosing a member in a safe district to lead fundraising and strategy efforts. Bustos easily won reelection this month but Republicans believe that she could be vulnerable in a more favorable election cycle.
Bustos rose to prominence within the Democratic caucus in recent years by serving as a co-chair of the party policy and communications committee, which developed political messaging ahead of the midterms. She also emerged as an unofficial spokeswoman for Democratic efforts to reach out to Trump voters, particularly in Midwestern districts like her own.
Bustos beat out two challengers from Washington state, Reps. Suzan DelBene and Denny Heck, in the Thursday vote. Bustos won 117 votes to Heck’s 83 and DelBene’s 32, winning the necessary majority by a single vote.
Also on Thursday, Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island was elected chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee (DPCC), a newly created position. Cicilline, who ran unopposed, was previously one of three co-chairs of the committee.
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