The day after, another era comes to an end in the US Congress. Nancy Pelosi will remain a Democratic MP, as she has been for 35 years, but after two decades, she is no longer the Democratic leader. It is time for a new generation to lead the group, she said on Thursday. Those eventful weeks will show who will replace them.
Pelosi is 82 years old. Her husband was recently seriously injured in an attack aimed at her. And when the Capitol was stormed, the mob broke into her office after a demonstration for Donald Trump in January 2021, she had been taken to safety. She is appreciated or at least respected by her colleagues, including many Republicans. But the day before her announcement, it was clear that she would have to retire after four years as Speaker, as Speaker of the entire House of Representatives. Because there the color of power will soon change and customs will probably also increase.
Instead of the Blues, the Democrats, the Reds, the Republicans, will again be in the majority from the new term of office in January 2023. The time had come on Wednesday, eight days after the November 8th midterm elections. By mid-afternoon, it was clear that former Navy pilot Mike Garcia, 46, won his party’s 218th seat in California’s 27th congressional district.
218 seats, that would be the minimal majority of the 435 voters. The final result and the exact allocation of places are unclear, the counting is ongoing. In any case, it is certain that President Joe Biden’s Democrats are no longer the only ones to speak in the capital – most recently for two years they determined not only the White House and the Senate but also the House of Representatives. “It’s official tonight,” Kevin McCarthy immediately tweeted. “The one-party rule of the Democrats is OVER. We fired Nancy Pelosi.”
She resigns from the parliamentary group leadership of the Democrats: Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday in the House of Representatives in Washington.
(Photo: Josh Morgan/IMAGO/USA TODAY Network)
McCarthy, 57, will succeed Pelosi as speaker if he gets enough votes in the ballot early next year. Even prior to his nomination to the post, third-highest after President Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris, he faced an opponent. McCarthy won the Republican nomination Tuesday 188-31 over Arizona Trump ally Andy Biggs.
Biden weathered the midterms much better than his predecessors
The Republicans had imagined it all very differently. The Senate remains Democratic no matter what happens in Georgia’s December runoff. For the majority in the House of Representatives, they only had to gain a few seats. In the previous composition, the Democrats have 220 and the Republicans 212, with three vacancies. Garcia’s success was crucial, but the midterms are still a disappointment for the opposition. Inflation is high, the president is not very popular, but he survives this endurance test much better than his predecessors. Barack Obama lost 63 seats in parliament in the midterms in 2010, Trump lost 41 in 2018, and Biden probably only ten or fewer.
Concern for democracy and support for abortion rights helped the Democrats. The Republicans were particularly hurt by Trump’s list of candidates. Nevertheless, Trump wants to compete again in 2024, which he has just announced in his stronghold of Mar-a-Lago. Opinions are divided on him in his party, and faction leader McCarthy feels that too. Not only the outgoing Democrat Pelosi doubts his suitability as a speaker, but also, for example, the Republican Trump confidante Matt Gaetz.
It will be a House of Representatives divided in every respect, divided into two camps and marked by Republican trench warfare. Joe Biden politely congratulated McCarthy’s Republicans on the majority. He is willing to work with them. The Americans wanted “that we do something for them,” so there was no time for political wars. But he knows it’s going to be uncomfortable.
The Democrats will try to push through projects such as the necessary financing programs by the beginning of the year. After that, an era of intensified mutual blockades is likely to begin, perhaps also with regard to aid to Ukraine, which some Republicans reject. They also plan to investigate Biden’s family and administration, among other things, about his son Hunter’s foreign business, the withdrawal from Afghanistan or the raid on Trump’s quarters.
Like Obama and Trump, Biden will use his executive powers. Republicans would need a two-thirds majority to veto the president, which they don’t have. An impeachment that has failed against Trump is unlikely given the tight conditions against Biden. But there should be a lot of trouble, especially since many older MPs, who would tend to be willing to work cross-party, have been replaced by new hardliners. Former Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer said in the Wall Street Journalthe government is facing something “that has never been seen before”.