House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi squeaked out a victory Wednesday, receiving the greatest vote of no confidence from House Democrats than any minority leader in decades, according to statistics website 538.
House Democrats didn’t overwhelmingly support Pelosi, with 63 voting for challenger Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan. Pelosi only earned 68 percent of the vote, the lowest percentage of any minority leader in recent political history.
Wednesday’s election broke Pelosi’s previous record of 20 votes in opposition. She now carries the three lowest votes for minority leader in recent political history. In 2011, 20 Democrats voted against her, while in 2013 that number came in at eight.
Previously, former Minority Leader Richard Gephardt carried the number for lowest showing of support in an election, with six Representatives voting against him in 1999.
Surprisingly, Pelosi earned 100 percent of the vote after the 2014 “surge” gave Republicans huge numbers in the House and Senate.
When former Speaker of the House John Boehner was minority leader in 2007, all Republicans voted in favor, and only 3 voted against him in the 2009 leadership election.
Forty-seven Republicans voted against Speaker of the House Paul Ryan in 2015, and 12 voted against Boehner in 2013 for House majority leadership — much higher than Pelosi’s numbers in the same position.
“I think a lot of people are unsure if we want the faces of the party to be Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi: liberals from New York and California. It was different with a Democratic president — he was the face of the party, but now they will be,” an unnamed Democrat told Buzzfeed Tuesday about the election.
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