--- title: Nancy Pelosi Clears First Hurdle to Be Speaker of the House description: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi cleared her first hurdle in reclaiming the Speaker's gavel — but the bigger challenge is yet to come. canonical: https://time.com/5465851/nancy-pelosi-speaker-battle/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-11-28T21:42:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T16:17:03.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Nancy Pelosi Cleared Her First Hurdle to Be Speaker og:description: But the big test doesn't come until January og:url: https://time.com/5465851/nancy-pelosi-speaker-battle/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta5f42432bf6b4205/69894029656a3f2172bd6175/nancy-pelosi-elected-speaker.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5758 og:image:height: 3239 og:image:alt: House Democrats Elect New Leaders og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Nancy Pelosi Cleared Her First Hurdle to Be Speaker twitter:description: But the big test doesn't come until January twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta5f42432bf6b4205/69894029656a3f2172bd6175/nancy-pelosi-elected-speaker.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Nancy Pelosi Cleared Her First Hurdle to Be Speaker. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=b6f71189-fd12-4f61-9fe2-56c0392a2392&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: FIRSTS Nancy Pelosi [Watch (HLS stream): FIRSTS Nancy Pelosi](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/cNOJjxC0.m3u8) (2:38)  _Published 2017-09-02. Nancy Pelosi is the FIRST woman to have been Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives._  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Updated: Dec 12, 2023 4:17 PM UTCPublished: Nov 28, 2018 9:42 PM UTC As expected, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi cleared her first hurdle Wednesday in reclaiming the Speaker’s gavel for the 116th Congress. But her bigger challenge is yet to come.  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Updated: Dec 12, 2023 4:17 PM UTCPublished: Nov 28, 2018 9:42 PM UTC As expected, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi cleared her first hurdle Wednesday in reclaiming the Speaker’s gavel for the 116th Congress. But her bigger challenge is yet to come. The majority of Pelosi’s colleagues voted to advance her nomination to the House floor in January. She was elected by 85 percent of her caucus, with 202 votes for her, 32 against her, and three lawmakers leaving their ballots blank. (One lawmaker, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, was absent because he has been hospitalized, but he is supporting Pelosi). Her top two deputies, Reps. Steny Hoyer and James Clyburn, were elected by unanimous consent to their respective posts of Majority Leader and Majority Whip. “We had the most unifying meeting,” Pelosi told reporters while the votes for her nomination were still being counted. “It was so inspiring to hear my colleagues place my name into nomination, once again, for Speaker of the House.” But while Pelosi has the nomination from her party sewn up, the actual election — and the big test — for her speakership will come on January 3, when she will need to secure the requisite 218 votes across the entire House. Right now, if the current vote tally stands, she appears short of that number, with a very slim margin for error. However, there are some legislative mechanisms Pelosi can use to her advantage. Her main opposition comes from a small group of rebellious Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Tim Ryan, who challenged Pelosi for the speakership in 2016, and Reps. Seth Moulton and Kathleen Rice, who are refusing to back her on the grounds of facilitating new leadership. In total, 16 current and incoming members of the caucus have signed a letter urging new leadership in both the caucus and the floor, indicating they wouldn’t vote for Pelosi in either case. The signatories, however, don’t include a handful of incoming freshmen who said during their campaigns that they would oppose her, a line many have continued to maintain. Meanwhile, Pelosi can shore up necessary support by having members vote “present,” which would lower the threshold she needs to clear the majority. It’s also possible that some of the people who voted against her on Wednesday could support her later on the floor. “When you have a vote, you have to be able to count and you have to continue working. Nancy is a master strategist. She won’t give up,” said Rep. Joyce Beatty, who was among the lawmakers who gave a speech endorsing Pelosi Wednesday. “I put a big yes by her name and I am very comfortable she will be the next speaker.” But the fact that Pelosi still doesn’t technically appear to have the votes has given the outliers some leverage. That was most prominently on display Wednesday, when, less than an hour into the election for Speaker, her office said she had reached an agreement on reforms with the problem solvers caucus, which included several lawmakers withholding support for her until they got the requisite rule changes they were requesting. They quickly announced they were supporting her, giving her a boost right before the nomination. “A lot of people mischaracterize this as an anti-Nancy Pelosi group,” Rep. Dan Lipinski, one member of that group, said on Wednesday before the deal was announced. “Problem solvers are trying to come up with changes to the House rules to open up the process to make it a little more bottom up than a top down. … I think that’s what the American people want to see happen so we will see if we get there.” Rep. Brian Higgins, who initially signed the letter calling for new leadership only to flip and back Pelosi, said the holdouts should use their position as leverage for achieving policy objectives. “I’m certain that over the next thirty days, the folks that are withholding their support will have leverage they’ve never had before,” he said. But Pelosi clearly has no interest in applying her deal-making skills to the one thing her most outspoken detractors want so badly to see: new leadership. Rice, Ryan and Moulton met with Pelosi on Wednesday before the Speaker vote. Moulton said the meeting was at Pelosi’s invitation, but an aide familiar with the events said Moulton requested it to discuss the possibility of a transition plan, only to be, in Rice’s words, “dismissed outright.” “We remain united behind our goal of new leadership and intend to vote against Leader Pelosi in Caucus and on the Floor of the House,” Rice said in a statement. Pelosi herself has floated the idea of being a “transitional figure,” although she has given few details about what that actually means. And the election of Rep. Hakeem Jeffries to caucus chairman was viewed as a positive for ushering in a new generation of leadership, as he is often touted as a possible Pelosi successor. “If the case is that there is no transformation of leadership that is now being eviscerated with \[Jeffries’ election\],” said Rep. Eric Swalwell. Swalwell is among the Pelosi allies who said it doesn’t make sense to outline a succession plan. “I don’t think any effective leader puts any expiration date on their leadership,” he said. Even Higgins, who had encouraged outliers to use their leverage, said they shouldn’t harness it for that purpose. “\[Pelosi\] has been here longer than she will be here,” he said. “Why would we as a caucus want to make her a lame duck?” ## Transcript [00:00] People will look at you and try to define you. Whether [00:02] you're a woman, whether you're young. They'll try and [00:04] cabin off what you are able to do. People can only [00:08] do that if you let them, and so I always viewed my job [00:12] as defining myself. If we are in a meeting we're there [00:15] for a reason. Not to just sit there and absorb. If [00:20] you are only there not speaking, you kind of create the [00:23] impression that you're not prepared to be there. You [00:27] need to participate, and you need to know what you're [00:30] talking about. You can ask a man to do a job that he's [00:33] never been qualified to do, and he will raise his hand [00:35] and say, absolutely, I will do that job. Women always [00:38] say I'm not sure I'm ready yet, I need more [00:40] experience. I don't necessarily know that there's [00:42] anything wrong with being more cautious and careful. I [00:44] mean, why have we come to decide that being brash [00:47] and overly aggressive should be the way we are. But [00:51] we should also know that we're not going to feel any [00:54] wiser or any more ready In ten years [00:58] than we did ten years ago. So we might as well just [01:01] leap. There is a lot of perception of my gosh it's [01:05] really hard because of the gender. What are you gonna [01:08] do about that, just not do it? If you want to do [01:12] something, you just do it and then hope that people [01:15] catch up to you. For girls that are gonna [01:19] be playing Little League, anything could happen. You [01:22] could be up by ten runs and you could lose the game, [01:24] so stay focused, make sure you play as a team. And [01:28] hopefully you hit a home run cuz no girl has ever hit a [01:31] home run, and I'll be cheering for you. [ MUSIC ] You'll [01:34] never make everyone happy so you just have to be [01:38] exactly who it is that you are and at least know that [01:41] you've been true to yourself. It's about attitude, [01:44] aptitude, and opportunity. Who knew I would be here? [01:49] But it all started with folks that thought I had a good [01:52] attitude. That put me in places that challenged [01:56] me and then provided me opportunities because I met [02:01] and exceeded the standard. You often don't realize [02:04] people want you to succeed and they often have very [02:06] good solutions, both practical and in terms of thinking [02:10] of opportunities for you. And the other thing is, I think [02:13] it's not too bad To have puny to great intensity doing [02:18] one thing or the other. Meryl Streep once said every [02:22] successful woman's life has it's ebbs and flows. Know [02:25] your power. Know the power of your intellect, of your [02:28] values and your commitment, the courage you have [02:32] and don't let anybody trivialize How you have spent [02:35] your years. All of them have contributed to making a [02:39] very unique and special person. Just take joy, [02:43] don't let anyone discourage you from that thing that [02:47] you love the most. It's more about making life. They're [02:52] making a living, that's what matters. [ MUSIC ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5465851/nancy-pelosi-speaker-battle/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5465851/nancy-pelosi-speaker-battle/"},"headline":"Nancy Pelosi Cleared Her First Hurdle to Be Speaker. 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