Pelosi Says She Has Votes to Reclaim the Gavel

WASHINGTON — The fight over Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s quest for the speaker’s gavel has become charged with the delicate and timely issue of gender, as Democrats wrestle with the importance of keeping a woman in the top job after a “pink wave” delivered the party back to the majority.

As Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, insisted Thursday that she had enough support for the speakership, some of her newly elected female colleagues dismissed the notion that it was paramount to have a woman at the top. And some of her male critics — mindful of the optics of dumping the highest-ranking woman in U.S. political history — began floating the names of other women to replace her.

“There’s plenty of really competent females that we can replace her with,” Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio, one of Pelosi’s leading critics, said Wednesday, listing the names of several. Among them was Rep. Marcia Fudge of Ohio, a former chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, who now says she is contemplating a run.

“Come on in, the water’s warm,” Pelosi said Thursday, seemingly mocking Fudge’s challenge. Asked if she had the 218 votes necessary to win the speakership, she said emphatically, “Yes.”

The notion that men are at the forefront of the opposition to the 78-year-old leader has infuriated her most ardent defenders, who regard the campaign against her as both ageist and sexist. Ryan and his group are being pilloried on Twitter as #FiveWhiteGuys, although they are joined by a woman, Rep. Kathleen Rice of New York.

“These male members were elected and got back here because of what women did,” said Rep. Anna Eshoo of California, a close Pelosi ally, warning that they will risk primary challenges from women if they are not careful. “They’re playing with fire.”

As the first woman to become speaker, Pelosi, of California, is a history-making figure in Washington. She held the gavel from 2007-11 and is considered by both Democrats and Republicans to be the most effective speaker in modern times. Were it not for her political skill and keen strategic sense, they say, President George W. Bush could not have secured the bank bailout he needed to halt an economic free fall and President Barack Obama could not have passed the Affordable Care Act.

But she has long been caught in a Republican campaign to vilify her, and after tens of millions of dollars of Republican attack ads caricaturing her as a San Francisco liberal, she has become a polarizing figure. Some Democrats in swing districts won their races by vowing not to vote for her and calling for generational change at the top. For them, gender is not a top concern.

“I never want to be disrespectful to anyone who has served, especially a woman who has broken glass ceilings,” said Elissa Slotkin, 42, an incoming representative from Michigan who just ousted a Republican in a tight race and has vowed to oppose Pelosi for speaker.

“But people in my district on both sides of the aisle feel that it’s time for a new generation of leadership,” Slotkin said. “For me, what’s most important for my district is someone who’s talking about kitchen table issues. That’s more important than gender.”

For Pelosi, who is making the case for herself in terms of competence and toughness, not gender, the House electoral math is complicated. She is still the odds-on favorite to be speaker and has no credible opponent; many Democrats believe she would easily beat back a challenge from Fudge, who told The Washington Post on Thursday that she was “overwhelmed” by support as she decided whether to run.

Pelosi has also been deploying some high-powered allies — including former Vice President Al Gore; Ellen Malcolm, founder of the women’s political action committee Emily’s List; former Sen. John Kerry; and Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York — to call Democrats to urge them to support her.

But 17 Democrats have signed a letter opposing Pelosi, and at least three others have said they will not vote for her. With roughly 230 Democrats in the next Congress (some races are still being decided), that is more than the number of votes she can afford to lose if she is to get to 218. Beyond Slotkin, other female newcomers in swing districts, including Kendra Horn, who won a surprise victory in Oklahoma, and Cindy Axne of Iowa, said they were more concerned with the wishes of their constituents than with the gender of the next speaker.

“I’m just going to make a decision based on the best interests of the people of my district,” Horn said.

Rice told reporters there were “plenty of women in the caucus” who could take Pelosi’s place and insinuated that the leader was playing the gender card as she tried to stave off an internal rule change that would ease a challenge to her speakership.

“What I don’t appreciate is putting a lot of our new candidates who happen to be women in the position where they are forced to break a caucus rule and then be accused of being anti-woman,” she said. “These are all strong, intelligent women who got into a race who had never been in politics before and won really difficult races, and they should not be disrespected that way.”

Overall, the number of women in leadership may grow after Democrats elect their leadership Nov. 28. Other women running for leadership spots include Rep. Cheri Bustos of Illinois, who is seeking to lead the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. She noted in an interview that Democrats needed to win 23 Republican-held seats to take the majority; so far, 24 Democratic women are in the new freshman class.

“I hope that our caucus values our leadership team reflecting what happened on Election Day,” she said.

The divide over Pelosi is generational as well as ideological, and it mirrors a similar generational divide that surfaced among women when Hillary Clinton ran for president. Pelosi has the deep loyalty of older women in the House Democratic Caucus, while her support among younger women is more fragmented.

“I think to older baby boomer women she represents change,” said Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster who advises many female candidates, including some incoming freshmen. “To younger members she represents the status quo.” Lake said a number of her clients, including some progressives, were wrestling with what to do about Pelosi and whether to come out against her. “They’ll say, ‘We want a liberal, we want change,’ and I’ll say, ‘You’ve got one — Nancy.'”

Two newcomers from southern California, Katie Hill and Mike Levin, urged their fellow freshmen Thursday to support Pelosi, saying in a joint announcement, “We don’t have time for internal squabbling — we have to get things done.”

Pelosi’s opposition mystifies Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill.

“I don’t understand why they don’t see the value of having a woman, a mother of five, someone who has made part of her mission empowering other women,” Schakowsky, 74, said. “I wish these younger women could have seen her in action.”

Schakowsky called the attacks on Pelosi by her male colleagues “sexist,” saying they are not pushing to oust longtime male leaders like Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, who is running for the No. 2 job as Democratic leader, and Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, who is running for Democratic whip.

Pelosi brushed aside a question about whether her opposition is sexist.

“I enjoy a tremendous amount of support from the women in our caucus, from the new members who are women in our caucus. And so I get the upside, I think, of being a woman,” she said, adding, “If, in fact, there is any misogyny involved in it, it’s their problem, not mine.”