Pelosi Re-Elected House Speaker But Her Position May Still Be Precarious
Nancy Pelosi has been re-elected as the speaker of the House of Representatives by her caucus for the next term of Congress.
Although did not not face any serious challenge during the virtual leadership elections session that was held on Wednesday, Pelosi, 80, still needs to secure a simple majority, 218 votes, by the full House of Representatives in January.
This comes as the Democrats are still grappling with unexpected losses in the House and the prospect of a Senate that would remain in the control of the Republican party.
Previously, the analysts had been predicted that the Democrats would expand their majority in the House by picking more 15 seats, but the party’s failure instead sparked a blame game that has increased tensions.
During the past two weeks, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer has conducted two conference calls in which the Democratic senators found the opportunity to express their views about the disappointing results of races, especially in Iowa, Maine, Montana and North Carolina where the party.
According to a Democratic senator, speaking on condition of anonymity, there had been “huge amounts” of frustration among the members speaking at the session.
“We shouldn’t have lost this election. You can explain it away, but the reality is Republicans have been beating the hell out of government since the Reagan years and saying [Democrats] are the defenders of bad government and that’s what the American people believe,” said the lawmaker.
Meanwhile, a number of centrist members of the party stressed the need to come up with better tactics to counter the socialism tags, such as “Medicare for All,” that GOPers managed to put on Democrats so successfully.
While Democrats still have a chance to take the control of the Senate during the runoff races in Georgia, the road to defeat the states’s Republican senators,David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, (R-Ga.) are long.
Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.) said he and his colleagues are still trying to figure out how the polls got some of the Senate races so wrong.
The party was optimistic about its chances of winning races in Maine and North Carolina, where polls had shown the party’s candidates ahead.
