House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has flipped another one of the 20-odd Democrats who’d pledged to vote against her on the floor.
Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA), who was one of the 16 Democrats on a letter guaranteeing they’d vote against Pelosi as House speaker, now says he’s changed course.
“Leader Pelosi has assured me that the priorities of average working families will be the priorities of the upcoming Congress,” Lynch said in a statement to the Washington Post.
Lynch had previously signaled he might flip.
Nearly three dozen Democrats voted against nominating Pelosi to return to the speakership in a closed-door meeting shortly after Thanksgiving. But many of them will vote for her on the floor, having registered their objections. The question is whether she can pick off more recalcitrant Democrats, or convince them to vote “present” as a way to lower the threshold she needs to get a bare majority of the House. She’s already flipped some others, including Reps. Marcia Fudge (D-OH) and Brian Higgins (D-NY). It appears increasingly likely that the wily lawmaker will find a way to return to the speakership.
