Pelosi Heads Off Democratic Leadership Fight, Backs Hoyer for No. 2 Post

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi averted a potentially divisive leadership fight between two of her top lieutenants as Democrats prepared for minority status next year.

Under an arrangement reached late yesterday, Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the current majority leader, would get the No. 2 job of minority whip come January. Jim Clyburn, now majority whip, would hold the third-ranking position in the newly created post of assistant leader.

“Should I receive the privilege of serving as House Democratic leader, I will be very honored to nominate our outstanding colleague, Congressman Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, to serve in the number three House Democratic position,” Pelosi, 70, said in an e-mailed note today to fellow Democrats. Clyburn’s “strategic leadership as whip was crucial to our passage of historic legislation on jobs, health care, veterans and Wall Street reform on behalf of the American people,” she said.

Hoyer, 71, announced Nov. 8 that he would seek to retain his No. 2 position in the leadership ranks and Clyburn, 70, the lone black among the Democratic hierarchy, said he, too, would run for minority whip.

Clyburn said in a statement today that the arrangement “honors the diversity and fosters the unity” of House Democrats by “adding another chair to the leadership table with a substantive, well-defined portfolio.” Giving minorities representation is “the road back to the majority” for the party.

The decision by Pelosi on Nov. 5 to run for minority leader rather than step aside had set up the potential fight after Democrats lost their House majority in the Nov. 2 midterm elections, and with it one of three leadership jobs. No one has announced a challenge to Pelosi.

Democrats lost at least 60 House seats in the Nov. 2 elections, reducing their caucus to about 188 members and meaning it would take at least 95 votes, in a secret ballot, to win a spot in the leadership.

To contact the reporter on this story: James Rowley in Washington at jarowley@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva in Washington at Msilva34@bloomberg.net.

Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina. Photographer: Ron Sachs/Pool via Bloomberg

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Nancy Pelosi

Olivier Douliery/Pool via Bloomberg

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Photographer: Olivier Douliery/Pool via Bloomberg

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Democrat from Maryland. Photographer: Brendan Hoffman/Bloomberg