Rep. Mikie Sherrill did not support Nancy Pelosi for re-election as House speaker.Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media
By Jonathan D. Salant | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Rep. Mikie Sherrill began her second term in Congress the way she did her first: Refusing to support Nancy Pelosi for speaker.
Sherrill, D-11th Dist., didn’t vote for anyone else but rather voted “present” — a third option that functions like an abstention. And since only votes that name a specific candidate count, it reduced the size of the majority Pelosi needed to win.
Also voting present with Sherrill, a former Navy pilot, were two of her close allies in the House, Reps. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., and Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., both former Central Intelligence Agency officials.
Two years earlier, Sherrill voted for fellow Democratic Rep. Cheri Bustos of Illinois, who ran the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee during the 2000 elections.
“I committed to the people of the 11th District that I would fight for new leadership,” Sherrill said. “I look forward to continuing to grow strong leadership in the Democratic Party.”
Two years ago, 18 Democrats didn’t back Pelosi, many of them fulfilling pledges during their congressional campaigns, as she became the first person to reclaim the speakership since Rep. Sam Rayburn, D-Texas, in 1955. She is the only woman ever to hold the post, second in line behind the vice president in succession to the presidency.
With a shrunken majority this time around, only five House Democrats failed to support Pelosi, who previously indicated she would give up the speakership after the 2022 elections.
The other two House Democratic dissenters, Reps. Conor Lamb of Pennsylvania and Jared Golden of Maine, voted for other lawmakers.
Related news stories:
Sherrill is lone N.J. Democrat not to vote for Pelosi for Speaker (NJ Globe)
Sherrill Again Refrains from Backing Pelos (INSIDERNJ)
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