Nancy Pelosi expected to win Democrats' backing for House speaker

WASHINGTON — House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi is expected to win backing from her caucus Wednesday to be her party’s nominee for House speaker, but the size of the vote against her will tell whether she has quelled her opposition.

Pelosi, 78, a San Francisco liberal who has led the caucus for 15 years, must win a majority of votes from House Democrats in a closed-door session Wednesday before she can run to become speaker again in a Jan. 3 election in which all 435 House members vote.

In the full House vote next year, though, Pelosi must get much more than a simple majority of her incoming 233-member caucus. Depending on lawmaker absences, abstentions or present votes, Pelosi must win as many as 218 Democratic votes.

On the eve of the scheduled daylong caucus meetings Wednesday, Pelosi faced a bloc of 16 Democrats, including Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-Garden City), who are demanding a change in leadership and have said they’ll vote against her.

Rice said that bloc of opponents just needs to roll up a large enough number of no votes to show that Pelosi can’t win with Democratic votes on Jan. 3, and a challenger from the ranks will emerge to run against Pelosi.

Meanwhile, nine other Democrats in the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, including Rep. Thomas Suozzi (D-Glen Cove), are withholding their support for Pelosi until she signs on to rule changes in how the House operates.

Suozzi said the caucus met Tuesday with the top Democrat on the Rules Committee.

“We’re very close. We still have to work out some final details,” Suozzi said of the rules that he said would make the House process more open and transparent, and would encourage members of both parties to work together.

They include the speaker sending bills with 290 sponsors to go the floor for debate and a vote, allowing amendments sponsored by 20 members of each party to get to the floor, and allowing each member to introduce one bill for debate and vote in their committees.

A scattering of other Democrats, including some new members, said they would not vote for Pelosi because they promised they would not, during their campaigns.

Yet Pelosi has successfully chipped away at her opposition, using all her powers and political savvy, and on Tuesday sent out at least 10 emails announcing the support for her by caucus members and outside groups.

Already, Pelosi persuaded an emerging challenger, Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio), to instead take a subcommittee chairmanship on elections. She flipped Rep. Brian Higgins (D-Buffalo) by telling him she would prioritize infrastructure and an expanded Medicare.

The Democrats’ vote on Pelosi will come after two other votes — for rules and chair of the caucus — as they meet for their organizational meetings.

Two longtime members of Pelosi’s leadership team face no challenger or opposition for posts in the Democratic House majority beginning in January: Reps. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), to be House majority leader, and James Clyburn (D-S.C.), to be majority whip.

The race for caucus chair to replace Rep. Joe Crowley (D-Queens), who was defeated by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, pits two African-American lawmakers: Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn), considered by many to be a rising star, and longtime Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.).