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It's no secret that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D) is facing a challenging bid for her former post as Speak of the House. The icing on the cake though? She thinks that it's time for her Democratic colleagues to come together and unite over her potential speakership.On Friday, Pelosi sent a letter to her Democratic colleagues, urging them to "support the nominee of our Caucus for Speaker on the Floor of the House." The Democratic Party's rules require members to vote for whoever the nominee is.Here's a copy of the letter (emphasis mine): November 23, 2018Dear Democratic Colleague and...

Control of the House will give them 'the power of no — the ability to block programs, cut funding, withhold agreement.' Democrats preparing to take over the House are aiming to roll back what they see as President Donald Trump's overly aggressive nuclear strategy. Their goals include eliminating money for Trump’s planned expansion of the U.S. atomic arsenal, including a new long-range ballistic missile and development of a smaller, battlefield nuclear bomb that critics say is more likely than a traditional nuke to be used in combat. They also want to stymie the administration's efforts to unravel arms control pacts...

A band of Democrats who are demanding House rule reforms have yet to reach a deal with Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the group announced Friday, putting up a potential roadblock in Pelosi’s quest to reclaim the Speaker’s gavel. Nine Democrats on the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus have vowed to withhold their votes for Speaker unless the candidate agrees to overhaul the House rules. Pelosi, who has been open to such changes, met with the group last week and promised to put in writing the changes to which she would commit. But the Democrats say they have yet to receive...

In the last decade, every single House Democrat sent to prison for financial crimes was a Congressional Black Caucus member. In the last twenty years, it’s been over 80%. After the midterms, the CBC has grown past a record 50 members. But that doesn’t mean it’s getting better. Power makes it worse... The Congressional Black Caucus has achieved a record number of seats so it’s a power player in the new Dem House majority. And CBC leaders are demanding a status in the Democrat leadership commensurate with their growing numbers. The Caucus forms somewhat less than a quarter of the...

Moments after arriving on Capitol Hill for freshman orientation, Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., went to the office of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. It wasn’t to speak with Pelosi about her run for House speakership. But to join an impromptu sit-in outside of Pelosi’s office to push for congressional action on climate change. “We need to tell her that we’ve got her back in showing and pursuing the most progressive energy agenda that this country has even seen,” Ocasio-Cortez said while standing in the middle of a group of around 200 protestors holding signs reading “Green Jobs For All.”

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi’s husband bought up to a quarter million dollars of stock in a now financially troubled green energy company just weeks before it announced a major 2014 acquisition that sent stock prices soaring, public records show. SunEdison told regulators last week that it is eyeing bankruptcy under the weight of $11.7 million in debt. But in late 2014, investors were bullish on the company, which manufactures and operates solar and wind power facilities. Its 2014 purchase of wind energy company First Wind “further bolstered the reputation of the company,” wrote one market-watcher at the time. “Perhaps...

SunEdison is now eyeing bankruptcy, but Paul Pelosi invested right before a 2014 stock rally House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi’s husband bought up to a quarter million dollars of stock in a now financially troubled green energy company just weeks before it announced a major 2014 acquisition that sent stock prices soaring, public records show. SunEdison told regulators last week that it is eyeing bankruptcy under the weight of $11.7 million in debt. But in late 2014, investors were bullish on the company, which manufactures and operates solar and wind power facilities. Its 2014 purchase of wind energy company First...

What rewards do conquering heroes or heroines usually receive? Applause. Lots of money. Near boundless power. And, if enlightened, these leaders are allowed to lead. Think Revolutionary War General George Washington who went on to become the first President. And World War II General Dwight D. Eisenhower — another President. But, Nancy Pelosi, the first woman Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the one who delivered some of the largest Democratic House wins in almost half a century, the one who turned the entire Northeast and reactionary Orange County blue — what does she get? A challenge by a...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., challenged Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, and anyone else to give her a run for her money atop the House Democratic conference, declaring that she has the votes to take back the speakership if the vote were held today. "Come on in. The water's warm" Pelosi said during her weekly press conference when asked of a possible challenge from Fudge.

**SNIP** Fudge, a former CBC chair and mayor of Warrensville Heights, Ohio, who has served in Congress since 2008, said in an interview with HuffPost that Pelosi “has been a very good leader” but believes “it’s time for a new one.” She also told the website that she believes Pelosi hasn’t been as strong enough of an advocate for African-Americans in Congress. Fudge’s potential bid has split members of the Congressional Black Caucus, some of whom had privately encouraged Clyburn and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, a rising star who is running for a lower level leadership position, to...

This flirtation with the idea of a Democratic bloodbath over the House speakership was fun. I admit; a little part of me was hoping for a slog. It would’ve been a moment of shattered unity for the new Democratic House before the new sessions officially began. And I would have loved to see what Donald Trump would’ve have said, or done, to get Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) the votes she would have needed if she fell short. Right now, some 16 or so House Democrats have formed a Never Nancy wing, adamant that they will not support her speakership bid....

Sixteen Democrats vowed Monday to oppose Nancy Pelosi for speaker on the House floor, throwing the California Democrat’s bid to reclaim the gavel in serious jeopardy. In a highly anticipated letter that went public Monday, the Democrats praised Pelosi as “a historic figure" but argued that it is time for change at the top. “Our majority came on the backs of candidates who said that they would support new leadership because voters in hard-won districts, and across the country, want to see real change in Washington," the group of Democrats said in the letter. "We promised to change the status...

Republicans overwhelmingly view President Trump as likable, but Democrats aren’t as enthusiastic about likely new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. But among all voters, both Trump and Pelosi aren’t very beloved.

Earlier this week, the newly-elected Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez dropped by Rep. Nancy Pelosi's Capitol Hill office. She was not there to say hello to her new colleague but to show support for a group of environmentalists hosting a sit-in in the potential Speaker of the House's workspace. The move rankled party leadership and consultants. But what exactly was Representative-elect Ocasio-Cortez showing support for? It was the "Green New Deal", a massive overhaul spending plan of the United States' economy in an effort to supposedly combat climate change. According to Politico, Ocasio-Cortez met with members from the Sunrise Movement, a nationwide...

**SNIP** Watching it all from the sidelines was Pelosi, who has already called for reinstatement of the select panel that she first set more than a decade ago. Ocasio-Cortez has praised Pelosi for reinstating the special committee, even though she wants it to have far broader authority to craft legislation remaking the U.S. energy grid. “We need to act on climate change NOW w/ a *fossil fuel $-free* Select Committee *with a mandate* to draft a Green New Deal,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted earlier Thursday. “It’s our best chance to beat the clock.” Pallone declined to comment on what happened during the...

A fight broke out in a closed-door meeting of House Democrats over climate change as a powerful veteran lawmaker fought with freshman star Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other members-elect over the creation of a special panel for the issue. New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone, incoming chairman of the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee — backed by a number of other committee members — slammed the creation of the new climate panel, according to multiple sources in the room. Pallone argued that his committee and other existing panels within the House could take on the issue aggressively. But Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Rep.-elect...

On Tuesday, we had an over the top gushy CNN report by Dana Bash on how absolutely wonderful House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is. This bit of excessive saccharine was followed up on Thursday with CNN's New Day host Alisyn Camerota advocating so forcefully for Pelosi as Speaker of the House, it almost sounded like she was auditioning to be her floor manager for that campaign.

Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) said Wednesday that a congresswoman besides Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) should be the House Speaker. “There’s plenty of really competent females that we can replace her with,” Ryan told reporters, before listing people such as Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) as potential candidates, The New York Times reported Thursday. His comments come as the battle for Democratic leadership in the House intensifies. Pelosi, who held the Speaker position from 2007 to 2011, expressed confidence on Thursday that she had enough support to be voted into the role. But many lawmakers are insistent about the idea of having...

Rep. Marcia Fudge is in a serious bind as she faces mounting pressure to challenge Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for the Speaker’s gavel — a move that could divide the Ohio Democrat's allegiances between the insurgency she supports and the Black Caucus she once led. A group of anti-Pelosi insurgents has been ramping up efforts to recruit Fudge, a former chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), amid criticism that the majority-male cohort is trying to oust the top-ranking female Democrat in the “Year of the Woman.” Pelosi allies have been deriding the rebels as “five white guys,” a...

**SNIP** Ms. Fudge is thinking about challenging Mrs. Pelosi, said Assistant Minority Leader James Clyburn (D., S.C.), who spoke with the Ohioan on Thursday. Mr. Clyburn, the top-ranking black lawmaker in the House, said he didn’t encourage or discourage Ms. Fudge, who is also black, to run. Both are members of the influential Congressional Black Caucus, whose ranks include about 45 House Democrats. A representative for Ms. Fudge didn’t respond to requests for an interview. She told Cleveland.com, her hometown news outlet, on Wednesday that she was giving it some thought. “I am at the very beginning of this process,”...