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Conor Lamb Votes No On Pelosi For Speaker

Pennsylvania Democrats have spoken on who they want to be led by in the upcoming session and just one stands alone.

Rep. Conor Lamb (D-Allegheny) was the lone Democrat from the incoming 9 Democrats in the Pennsylvania Congressional delegation to vote against Rep. Nancy Pelosi as the next Speaker of the House.

In a press release, Lamb cited his belief that Western Pennsylvanians are seeking new leadership on both sides of the aisle.

“I believe we need new leadership to put the partisan gridlock behind us, and I promised my constituents I would vote for new leadership,” Lamb said in the release. “That’s what I did today, and what I’ll do on the floor.”

Pelosi was nominated to be speaker by House Democrats by a 203-23 vote yesterday, with three ballots left blank and one absentee. She can’t afford to lose more than 17 Democrats on the House floor if Democrats hold 235 seats and all members vote for a candidate, according to Manu Raj, Senior Congressional Correspondent for CNN.

Pelosi faced Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) head to head in 2016 for Democratic leader. Ryan captured 63 of those votes in the Democratic caucus, but only four ended up voting against her on the House floor.

During Lamb’s successful bid in the special election for Pennsylvania’s old 18th Congressional district in the Spring, he touted his opposition to Pelosi as Speaker in campaign ads in the Trump friendly district.

In his winning campaign against Rep. Keith Rothfus (R-Allegheny) earlier this month, he stood by his opposition to Pelosi as speaker.

Most Democrats in GOP friendly districts often distanced themselves from Pelosi while campaigning for Congress this election, although Lamb was the only successful Democrat in Pennsylvania to campaign against Pelosi as Speaker and win his district.

As of last week, most Pennsylvania Democrats voiced their support for Pelosi ahead of the vote, according to the Allentown Morning Call.

Leading into this week, Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Lackawanna) and member-elect Susan Wild (D-Lehigh) did not officially commit to Pelosi, but both ended up voting for her yesterday in the caucus vote.

Recognizing how pivotal the Pennsylvania vote is for Pelosi, Politico reported two weeks ago that even Gov. Tom Wolf was making calls on her behalf.

“Democratic Party luminaries are calling members-elect on Pelosi’s behalf as well. Govs. Andrew Cuomo of New York and Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania have weighed in, as have former Vice President Al Gore and former Secretary of State and longtime Democratic Sen. John Kerry, according to Democratic aides.”

This article was updated to correctly credit Lamb with a quote about not supporting Pelosi. 

16 Responses

  1. Lamb has been true to his word every single time. He is the real deal. Refreshing to see someone not swayed by party pressure.

  2. President Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen entered into a plea deal with special counsel Robert Mueller for making false statements to congressional investigators about his contacts with Russians during the 2016 campaign

    Garrett Graff: “The new guilty plea firmly—and dramatically—shifts the narrative and timeline of the Russia investigation, establishing that while pursuing the White House, Donald Trump was also pursuing personal business deals with a foreign adversary that, according to Mueller’s earlier indictments, engaged in a multifaceted, complex, expensive, and long-running criminal conspiracy to help deliver Trump to the presidency.”

    “The guilty plea—which, like every step of the Mueller investigation took even close watchers by surprise with its timing and rich level of detail—draws a direct connection between Donald Trump’s business deals and Russian president Vladimir Putin.”

  3. So what about the typo where you say “Cartwright” is voted a against Pelosi, because of his Western Pennsylvania constituents?

  4. Why does everyone seem to forget that before Lamb was against Pelosi, during the nominating process for the Special Election, he initially said that deciding whether or not to support her was “premature”.

    As with everything else, Lamb does nothing that is not poll and focus group tested. No profile in courage there.

    1. You seem to want to minimize Lamb’s achievements. I don’t know Lamb nor can vote for him but the fact remains he has done difficult things to win twice for Congress in a short period of time–ran in a heavily R district and won along with months later running in another district than he originally won in and win again. If you want to look at a candidate who tried election by political consultants it was Scott Wagner who even tried to work in “the caravan” as a late minute strategy. Wagner also followed with not releasing his tax forms (another trendy action by Republicans this past cycle).

    2. Lamb made a promise and stuck to it, despite pressure from Dem Congressional leaders. Sounds like courage to me.

      1. I hope you are right. We will see if you are in January.The House Democratic Leadership team as it is currently comprised is not exactly a youth movement.

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