New 'Squad' members Cori Bush, Jamaal Bowman refuse to back Nancy Pelosi for Speaker
The Democratic Party managed to retain dominance in the House of Representatives in last month’s election even after losing some seats but that has not essentially made a house of harmony. The progressive-moderate divide in the blue party has come to the fore after the less-than-satisfactory result in the House elections with the progressives getting blamed for the loss of some key seats because of their radical ideas like defunding the police. The progressive voices, on the other hand, most identified with New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, are in favor of a new leadership in the party.
Amid this rift, two fresh Democratic representatives-elect of color -- Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman -- were asked whether they would vote for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s reelection in two years and they refused to say an outright ‘yes’. Both Bush, who will take over next month as the representative from Missouri’s 1st congressional district, and Bowman, who will be the lawmaker from New York’s 16th district, said they are more focused on the recent coronavirus relief package, which they felt should include bigger checks for common Americans.
“What I'm going to do is make sure that the voices of the people of Saint Louis are heard and that we have what we need. And so you will find out then,” Bush said on CNN ‘State of the Union’ show on Sunday, December 27, when asked if she would vote for Pelosi's re-election. “That’s not a yes,” Dana Bash, the host said. But Bush yet did not respond straight, saying: “I’m working with my community.”
Bowman, who was also present on the program, also was not clear who he would vote for in the next Democratic leadership elections. “So, you will find out when my vote is tallied,” Bowman said, adding: “And, again, organizing with our community to figure out what's best.”
Bush became Missouri’s first Black woman member of the Congress and also the first non-Clay to become a Congress member from Missouri’s first district in more than 50 years after incumbent Lacy Clay (who served since 2001) and his father Bill between 1969 and 2001. She defeated GOP’s Anthony Rogers by a big margin in the November 3 election.
AOC said she wouldn't back Pelosi reelection
Bowman, 44, also beat his Conservative Party opponent Patrick McManus by a wide margin and will replace Eliot Engel who has been serving from the 16th district since 2013.
The issue has yet again exposed the strained relation that Pelosi, 80, has with the ‘Squad’ members. AOC, a self-styled Democratic socialist, said recently that she would not support the California representative if she ran again and sought a more progressive leadership for the Dems. The 31-year-old firebrand leader, however, also conceded that even if Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, 70, were to go, there were no ready replacements for them and she herself was not still in a position to take up the big role of speaker. She even feared that the duo could see replacement by “something even worse”.
“How do we fill that vacuum? Because if you create that vacuum, there are so many nefarious forces at play to fill that vacuum with something even worse,” AOC told The Intercept podcast 'Intercepted' on December 16.
“And so, the actual sad state of affairs is that there are folks more conservative than even they are willing to kind of fill that void. The House is extraordinarily complex and I'm not ready,” she said, adding: “It can't be me. I know that I couldn't do that job.”
Pelosi hit out at progressives in the past
Pelosi, the 52nd speaker of the House, is currently serving her second term after the first one lasted between 2007 and 2011. The veteran leader is also known for her less charitable views on the ‘Squad’. In an interview last year, Pelosi mocked the AOC-led progressives as “That’s like five people”.
Ocasio-Cortez said the replacement for Pelosi and Schumer could end up being worse and 'even more conservative' than the current Democratic leaders.
Two years ago, Pelosi announced that she would step down as a top Democrat in the House by 2022 in a deal with her party's lawmakers seeking a generational change. The deal secured the leader's votes she needed to become the speaker in January 2019. "The term-limits proposal, if passed by a majority of Democratic members, would require that all three senior leadership members step aside after serving three terms. They could serve a fourth term with two-thirds' support of the Democratic caucus, but because it would apply retroactively, the upcoming Congress would be Pelosi’s third term as leader," a BuzzFeed News report said then.
Meanwhile, both Bush and Bowman slammed President Donald Trump during their interview saying the latter needed to sign the new coronavirus relief package (which he eventually did on Sunday) that Congress overwhelmingly passed on Tuesday and sent to the president for his assent. The president objected to the proposal of paying Americans $600 and wanted to be raised to $2,000, something both the Democrats welcomed.