Rejecting pleas from some of her fellow Democrats to step down, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., will seek to retain her position as the top Democrat in the House, despite the drubbing her party took at the polls on Tuesday.
Pelosi announed Friday that she is running for Minority Leader.
"Driven by the urgency of creating jobs & protecting Social Security & Medicare, I am running for Dem Leader," Pelosi tweeted this afternoon.
In a letter to colleagues, she elaborated:
"Our work is far from finished. As a result of Tuesday's election, the role of Democrats in the 112th Congress will change, but our commitment to serving the American people will not. We have no intention of allowing our great achievements to be rolled back. It is my hope that we can work in a bipartisan way to create jobs and strengthen the middle class."
Despite public calls from some Democrats for her to step aside, Pelosi said her decision was, in part, based on support she still has within the House Democratic Caucus. “Many of our colleagues have called with their recommendations on how to continue our fight for the middle class, and have encouraged me to run for House Democratic leader. Based on those discussions, and driven by the urgency of protecting health care reform, Wall Street reform, and Social Security and Medicare, I have decided to run.”
Her decision comes despite attacks this week from some fellow House Democrats who blame her for the election night beatdown, some of whom said it was time for new leadership to rebuild the caucus for the 2012 elections. It remains unclear if Pelosi might face a challenge.
But Pelosi has said since Wednesday that she has been canvassing fellow caucus members – and apparently has reached the conclusion she can still command enough of their votes to win the minority leader's post.
And in her brief, tweeted announcement, she is pointing to what she anticipates as fights on the future of Social Security and Medicare as her reasons why she wants to lead her party back into the majority it lost Tuesday.
Almost immediately, the No. 2 House Democrat – Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., who likely would have sailed into the minority leader’s job had Pelosi decided not to stick around, announced that he was thinking about running for minority whip, the second spot in the minority leadership, setting up a contest with current Majority Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina, who announed his intention to seek the second top spot. In a letter released Friday, Clyburn said, "There is general acknowledgement that we lost the communications battle on too many fronts. And while our defeat cannot entirely be attributed to a communications problem, I believe it was a significant factor."
Hoyer issued this statement Friday: “In the days since the election, I have received an outpouring of support from Democratic colleagues who have told me that I should remain in our party’s leadership, so that our caucus can hit the ground running with a strong, tested leadership team. Over the next several days, I will continue to speak to my colleagues about serving our caucus as Democratic whip, and I will announce a decision after I have consulted with them.”
Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., told National Journal that Hoyer's allies had already begun preparing for the possibility of a Pelosi retirement – and may have even secured more than enough votes to win the minority leader’s spot. But under no circumstances, he said, would Hoyer challenge Pelosi.
Hoyer had been part of a conference call earlier today with Pelosi and other leaders on the upcoming lame-duck session, and people on the call say Pelosi never raised the topic of her leadership plans, and neither did anyone else – including Hoyer.
But conference-call participants said it was clear from the conversation that Pelosi intended to stay on as leader. As speculation began to swirl that Pelosi she would stay, Republicans seemed to be goading her to do just that, relishing the idea of having her as a continued target.
“Given that there are now 60-plus defeated Democrat House members urgently seeking jobs due to Nancy Pelosi’s failed leadership, we welcome her decision to run for House minority leader, based on her proven ability to create jobs for Republican lawmakers,” said Ken Spain, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result. Of course, if House Democrats are willing to sacrifice more of their members in 2012 for the glory of Nancy Pelosi, we are happy to oblige them.”
"We wholeheartedly endorse Nancy Pelosi for Minority Leader - she has done a GREAT job!" the conservative advocacy group Citizens United snarked in a tweet.
And Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., joined in sarcastically with this post on his Twitter account: "I endorse Nancy Pelosi for minority leader."
Moran said he believes Pelosi would, in fact, command the support of the majority of the House Democratic Caucus. Ironically, part of the Pelosi calculation may have included the fact that the people who survived last Tuesday were those most aligned with her, boosting her chances of winning again. Given the number of fellow California members and the nearly 80 members of the Progressive Caucus, who would likely support her, the numbers are clearly in her favor.
The issue, however, continues to be how divided that move would leave the caucus.
Rep. Michael Capuano, D-Mass., told National Journal he called Pelosi Thursday night and told her the entire leadership team should step down from their posts. He said Pelosi was still weighing her options and said her prospects for retaining control were uncertain.
"If she wants to, she'll have a good shot at it," Capuano said.
Capuano said the entire leadership team should go because they all bear some responsibility for the environment around Tuesday's losses.
"We just got croaked," he said. "Nancy's the speaker, so, yeah, she's first in line."
More moderate Democrats and some others have said there is significant resentment toward Pelosi for Tuesday’s drubbing, and that they don’t want her as a leader anymore, as they seek to rebuild for 2012. It remained unclear if threats to challenge Pelosi would emerge.
Lawmakers on both sides of the question of whether she should stay, or go, had been urging for Pelosi to make up her mind so that other party leaders and potential leaders can decide on their plans, and the caucus can begin to rebuild.
Reelected and newly elected House Democrats will pick their new leaders for the new Congress, which begins in January, during closed-door voting in Washington during the week of November 15, when the House reconvenes for a lame-duck session.
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