Nancy Pelosi may be facing a serious challenge in her bid to keep her position as Speaker of the House, from both sides of the aisle.
Tom Emmer, Representative from Minnesota and Chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee said: “I mean Nancy Pelosi doesn’t even have a majority where she can be elected speaker again.”
“Whoever would have guessed that it’d be possible that Nancy Pelosi might not be the speaker?” Emmer asked.
“I know the vote on the floor is difficult for Speaker. I know there was a number of people who did not vote for her last time,” House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said.
“And as our numbers continue to grow, I think at the end of the day, no matter where we end up, we’ll be able to have a very big say, or even run the floor when it comes to policy,” McCarthy added.
The voice vote for Speaker of the House requires a majority. Usually, Republicans yell out the name of their party leader, currently Kevin McCarthy, and Democrats announce their vote for Nancy Pelosi. The party with greater numbers wins the vote.
According to Fox News, “Pelosi has struck deals and maneuvered to squash internal challenges to her leadership before.
She overcame defectors in the past, including those from moderate Democrats who had pledged to vote against her if elected. In 2019, there were 15 Democrats who didn’t support her, but she could afford the losses with a bigger majority.”
As votes are still being counted, it is unclear yet how small the Democrats’ majority will be heading into the new year.