House Democrats nominated Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday to be the speaker who guides them again next year as Joe Biden becomes president, and she quickly seemed to suggest these would be her final two years in the leadership post. Pelosi already has served six years in the job, but with a shrunken majority of around 222-213 and an uncontrolled pandemic, the next two loom as her toughest. When a reporter asked Pelosi, who is 80 years old, whether the next two years would be her last as speaker, it was little surprise that she mentioned a commitment she made in 2018, the AP reports. Scrambling to win enough votes to become speaker, she said then that she would agree to limit her term to four more years.
"I can't wait to be working with Joe Biden and preparing us for our transition into the future," she said. "So I don't want to undermine any leverage I may have, but I made the statement." Biden's office said the president-elect called Pelosi to congratulate her selection and spoke of working together "on a shared agenda to get COVID-19 under control and build our economy back better." All House members will pick the speaker when the new Congress convenes in early January. To become speaker again, Pelosi will need more votes than House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who's likely to garner nearly unanimous GOP support, meaning she can't afford to lose more than a handful of votes. Hinting that she won't try leading Democrats again in 2022 may help her nail down the votes she needs.
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