Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi held onto her job leading House Democrats today as her caucus re-elected her to the position -- despite rumblings from inside and outside the caucus that change and fresh ideas may be needed after a disappointing November election.

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The Democratic caucus voted 134-63 in favor of Pelosi.

Pelosi was challenged by Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), who has argued that younger members with a vision for expanding the party's economic message and geographical outreach is key to future electoral and legislative success. After the vote, Ryan said the Democratic caucus needs to come together.

The party's new leadership was chosen today in a private meeting using secret ballots. Current leaders decided to push back the voting amid the rumblings from some members that a pause, and possibly new leaders, could be good for their caucus.

Members elected a new Democratic leader, caucus chair, whip, and caucus vice chair, though only the leader and vice chair positions were currently contested.

Pelosi has led the House Democrats for 13 years. She was the first female speaker of the House, from 2007 to 2011, and she served as whip before then. In 2010, she defeated former Rep. Heath Shuler (D-NC) to keep her seat after a wave of Tea Party members elected cost her party the majority in the House.

Rep. Linda T. Sánchez (D-CA) won vice-chair of the caucus; she is the first minority woman elected to House leadership. Sánchez is also chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Reps. Linda Sánchez and Barbara Lee had faced off for caucus vice chair -- both women of color and from California.

Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) ran unopposed to keep his position as Democratic whip and Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY) was chosen as the caucus chair after having served as vice chair.

After the November 8 election, about two dozen members signed a letter asking Pelosi to bump back the caucus’s leadership election. Even more grumbled that rushing into it looked tone deaf. Pelosi conceded that point, but was quick to announce that she enjoyed two-thirds of the caucus support. She also rolled out endorsements from MoveOn and other progressive groups.

Ryan said repeatedly that he thought Pelosi was inflating her support. Eleven members came out publicly to back him.

Just this week, Pelosi announced that she would include a representative from the freshmen class to serve as part of the House Democratic leadership, but she also renamed Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) to serve as chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee again, despite the fact that Democrats only picked up six seats this go-around and many in the party suggested it should be an elected position.

Several staff and members on the Hill rolled their eyes at the move, as the position could have been potentially an easy place for Pelosi to signal she is willing to make some changes.

Earlier this month, Ryan told ABC News, "Donald Trump is the president, that is how bad we are out of touch, that the backbone of our party went and voted for Donald Trump. And I say that’s our fault." He signaled a desire to reach out specifically to working class and blue collar voters in the Rust Belt.

"This election is not going to be won at fundraisers on the coasts," the Ohio Democrat told The Wall Street Journal last week. "It’s going to be won in union halls in the industrial Midwest and fish fries in the Midwest and the South."

His staff said he spent much of the Thanksgiving break making calls to his colleagues and they believed it would be a close race.

Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), who backed Ryan, wrote in a statement, "At this critical juncture, we face a choice –- will we preserve a broken status quo or will we set our party on a new course?"

After the vote, Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH), one of the first to publicly back her Ohio colleague, said, "We did not lose today. We won. We have a caucus, we have leadership that has to listen to us."

Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-OR) expressed frustration over the selection of Pelosi.

"I am worried we just signed Democrats death certificate for next eight years," he said.

The White House has not formally weighed in. But, President Obama has praised Pelosi since the election, saying last week, "I cannot speak highly enough of Nancy Pelosi. She combines strong, progressive values with just extraordinary political skill."</s>House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday won the race to lead the Democratic caucus for an eighth term, prevailing in a contest that became a vote of confidence in her continued stewardship and an early proxy battle over the future of the Democratic Party.

The Californian easily toppled Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, a seven-term lawmaker who launched an upstart bid to lead House Democrats two weeks ago in response to the party's disappointing November election results.

But Pelosi's margin of victory, 134 votes to 63 for Ryan, signaled a large degree of discontent with her continued leadership after 14 years atop the caucus and, more broadly, with the Democratic policy agenda that many lawmakers feel has grown stale.

While she cleared her self-declared margin of victory, a two-thirds majority, many Democrats were stunned that almost a third of the caucus was willing to vote for a back-bench lawmaker with no major policy or political experience.

Many were left wondering whether a more seasoned Democrat could have actually toppled Pelosi, with several privately suggesting this would have to be Pelosi's last term as leader. Ryan's 63 votes marked the largest number of opposition votes Pelosi has faced in any leadership race since winning a deputy leadership position 15 years ago that set her on a course to become the first female House speaker.

Though they came up well short, Ryan and his band of supporters declared a symbolic victory in prompting Pelosi to make a series of proposals to elevate junior lawmakers and lead a more inclusive leadership table. They also declared that the party's economic agenda, at times ignored by their presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, and other Democrats, would move to the front and center to appeal across the country alongside the cultural issues that dominated the campaign.

"We're going to win as Democrats if we have an economic message that resonates in every part of the country," Ryan told reporters after his defeat. "We are disappointed because I like to win . . . But the party is better off," he added.

An hour later, Pelosi appeared and publicly congratulated Ryan on running a good race. But, she said, "I think we're at a time that is well beyond politics. It's about the character of America.

After gaining just six seats in the November elections -- after Pelosi publicly and privately suggested a gain of more than 20 -- there will be 194 members of the House Democratic caucus. Four nonvoting delegates, including Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., were allowed to vote in Wednesday's caucus elections.

Pelosi had set the expectations bar high by publicly declaring she has "more than two-thirds" of the votes locked up. She cleared that threshold on Wednesday, but Ryan's tally will not go unnoticed.

His supporters believed that the closer Ryan got to between 60 and 80 votes, the more direct the signal to Pelosi that the rank-and-file is ready for her to develop a transition-of-power plan. At 76, she's one of three septuagenarians leading the caucus, followed by 77-year-old Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the minority whip; and 76-year-old Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., the assistant to the leader.

Hoyer and Clyburn were unchallenged on Wednesday.

Republicans, who have vilified Pelosi in the past, believing that her West Coast liberalism does not translate into political victories. Party leaders were so gleeful that the National Republican Congressional Committee immediately hung a "Congrats Nancy!" poster atop a "Hire Pelosi" banner that has been affixed to Republican National Committee headquarters this week.

Pelosi tried to placate some of the angst among junior lawmakers by offering a series of new or modified positions, including the new position of "vice-ranking member" on the more than 20 standing House committees and reserving it for lawmakers who served four terms or less. A policy leadership position would be divided into three co-chairmen and reserved for those who have served five terms or less.

Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-Texas, credited Ryan's challenge with forcing Pelosi to take the unrest among colleagues more seriously.

"That's partly a response to the competition in the caucus for votes, and that's a healthy thing," he said.

Others remain upset at Pelosi's control of the House campaign arm, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. She has proposed leaving Rep. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., as DCCC chairman for another term, despite 2016 elections that saw just a six-seat gain after Pelosi personally predicted a gain of more than 20 seats.

"We should have been recruiting earlier, we should have better targeting. I think our messaging was off," Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., said in an interview on Tuesday. "I think we are focused so much still on TV instead of looking at new methods of communications and/or even old methods of communication - canvassing and digital buys."

A 37-year old former Marine corporal, Gallego was especially critical of what he considered the DCCC's staff work trying to please Pelosi, calling them "bureaucratic in nature."

Some Democrats want the position to be contested rather than be a rubber stamp of whoever top Democrats select.

Pelosi's backers reminded detractors that House Democrats are now in a "comeback situation" without a Democratic president in office - a dynamic similar to 2000 when Bush took office after a fiercely partisan, closely contested election. Over six years, Pelosi served as Bush's main partisan foil and ultimately led a campaign that regained House control.

Supporters also acknowledged, however, that after 14 years atop the party, Pelosi is nearing her political twilight.

"This is probably her last go," said one member who requested anonymity to speak frankly about caucus dynamics. "She's coming to terms with the idea that people want her to move on. The opposition is so public now, and I only see that growing, not diminishing."

The prospect of Pelosi's departure and the likely exit of Hoyer and Clyburn, would create an incredible leadership vacuum.

But in a few years, "I don't see an 80-year old new minority leader," the member said.

The Washington Post's Mike DeBonis contributed to this report.</s>WASHINGTON — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday won the race to lead the Democratic caucus for an eighth term, prevailing in a contest that became a vote of confidence in her continued stewardship and an early proxy battle over the future of the Democratic Party.

The Californian easily toppled Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, a seven-term lawmaker who launched an upstart bid to lead House Democrats two weeks ago in response to the party’s disappointing November election results.

After 14 undistinguished years in Congress, Ryan emerged from the backbench — he literally sits in the last bench in the chamber — as a vessel of discontent and forced Pelosi to fight for the top spot like never before. It’s prompted her to offer structural changes to leadership and more opportunity to the burgeoning crop of junior lawmakers who have never served in the majority.

Pelosi vowed to expand the number of seats at the leadership table to stave off defections and leave her firmly in charge of a caucus ruled by an “iron fist,” as Senate counterpart, Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, once described her leadership style.

There are 194 members of the House Democratic caucus, and four nonvoting delegates are allowed to vote in caucus elections. On Wednesday, 197 of the 198 members showed up. Pelosi won with 134 votes, compared to 63 votes for Ryan in a secret-ballot election held in the august committee room of the House Ways and Means Committee.

“We got the message out that we wanted to get out. … We’re going to win as Democrats if we have an economic message that resonates in every part of the country,” Ryan told reporters after his defeat.

“We disappointed because I like to win. … But the party is better off,” he added.

Ryan was flanked by some of his closest supporters, Reps. Sean Moulton, D-Massachusetts, Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, Stephen Lynch, D-Massachusetts, Ed Perlmutter, D-Colorado, Ruben Gallego, D-Arizona, and Dan Lipinski, D-Illinois.

Another Ryan supporter, Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Arizona, said she was “disappointed” that House Democrats “decided to double down on its failed strategy of recent years.”

“This should be a time of critical reflection and clear-eyed change, not a time to rubber stamp the failed strategy of the past,” she said in a statement.

Pelosi was expected to address reporters later on Wednesday.

She had set the expectations bar high by publicly declaring she has “more than two-thirds” of the votes locked up. She cleared that threshold on Wednesday, but Ryan’s 63 votes was the highest margin of rejection Pelosi has ever faced.

His supporters believed that the closer Ryan got to between 60 and 80 votes, the more direct the signal to Pelosi that the rank-and-file is ready for her to develop a transition-of-power plan. At 76, she’s one of three septuagenarians leading the caucus, followed by 77-year-old Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, the minority whip; and 76-year-old Rep. James Clyburn, D-South Carolina, the assistant to the leader.

Hoyer and Clyburn were unchallenged Wednesday and are expected to be easily re-elected.

In the days before the vote, Ryan railed against Pelosi and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign for failing to connect with voters in economically distressed parts of the country.

Pelosi tried to placate some of the angst among junior lawmakers by offering a series of new or modified positions, including the new position of “vice-ranking member” on the more than 20 standing House committees and reserving it for lawmakers who served four terms or less. A policy leadership position would be divided into three co-chairmen and reserved for those who have served five terms or less.

Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-Texas, credited Ryan’s challenge with forcing Pelosi to take the unrest among colleagues more seriously.

“That’s partly a response to the competition in the caucus for votes, and that’s a healthy thing,” he said.

Others remain upset at Pelosi’s control of the House campaign arm, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. She has proposed leaving Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-New Mexico, as DCCC chairman for another term, despite 2016 elections that saw just a six-seat gain after Pelosi personally predicted a gain of more than 20 seats.

“We should have been recruiting earlier, we should have better targeting. I think our messaging was off,” Gallego said in an interview on Tuesday. “I think we are focused so much still on TV instead of looking at new methods of communications and/or even old methods of communication — canvassing and digital buys.”

A 37-year old former Marine corporal, Gallego was especially critical of what he considered the DCCC’s staff work trying to please Pelosi, calling them “bureaucratic in nature.”

Some Democrats want the position to be contested rather than rubber stamp of whoever top Democrats select.

Pelosi’s backers reminded detractors that House Democrats are now in a “comeback situation” without a Democratic president in office — a dynamic similar to 2000 when Bush took office after a fiercely partisan, closely contested election. Over six years, Pelosi served as Bush’s main partisan foil and ultimately led a campaign that regained House control.

Supporters also acknowledged, however, that after 14 years atop the party, Pelosi is nearing her political twilight.

“This is probably her last go,” said one member who requested anonymity to speak frankly about caucus dynamics. “She’s coming to terms with the idea that people want her to move on. The opposition is so public now and I only see that growing, not diminishing.”

The prospect of Pelosi’s departure and the likely demise of Hoyer and Clyburn, would create an incredible leadership vacuum.

But in a few years, “I don’t see an 80-year old new minority leader,” the member said.

The Washington Post’s Mike DeBonis contributed to this report.</s>WASHINGTON — House Democrats have re-elected Nancy Pelosi as their leader.

The California lawmaker, who has led the party since 2002, turned back a challenge from Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan on Wednesday.

Her win came despite disenchantment among some in the Democratic caucus over the party’s disappointing performance in the elections earlier this month. Democrats will remain in the minority in the House and Senate next year and won’t have the presidency as a bulwark against Republicans.

Democrats were also choosing other leaders during the closed-door session that was expected to take several hours.</s>WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The Republican Party has criticized Nancy Pelosi's re-election as House Minority Leader.



'The American people have been trying to send the Democrat Party a message by selecting historic numbers of Republicans for office at nearly every level of government but Nancy Pelosi's re-election shows Democrats aren't listening,' Republican National Committee (RNC) Co-Chair Sharon Day said in a statement Wednesday.



Earlier in the day, Pelosi, a Representative from California, was re-elected after fending off a challenge from Tim Ryan, D-Ohio.



House Democrats voted 134 to 63 to keep Pelosi as leader of the caucus, a position she has held since 2003.



Day noted, 'Tim Ryan was able to peel off over 60 Democrats in his campaign for Minority Leader reveals Democrats have no unified vision for our country and are content to once again entrust leadership to someone who has led their party into total irrelevance in the House.'



Pelosi previously claimed the support of over two-thirds of the Democratic caucus, but the votes for Ryan represent the largest defection she has faced.



Ryan had argued that a new voice was needed in a time of fear and disillusionment after the elections earlier this month, which gave Republicans control of the House, the Senate, and the White House.



'Despite Nancy Pelosi keeping her caucus firmly in the minority for six years, Democrats inexplicably keep rewarding her track record of failed leadership with successive terms as House Minority Leader,' the GOP alleged.



Voters have repeatedly rejected Pelosi's liberal agenda of higher taxes, weak border enforcement, and government-run healthcare, yet out-of-touch congressional Democrats have chosen to side with Washington insiders to pursue more of the same, the statement added.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX</s>WASHINGTON — Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi faces a challenge to her job as frustrated House Democrats meet to select a new slate of leaders.

Pelosi is likely to be re-elected easily Wednesday despite disenchantment among some in the Democratic caucus she has led since 2002. Ohio Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan is challenging her for the job, arguing that newer lawmakers need a bigger voice in a caucus that’s been led for years by the same aging slate of leaders and committee chairmen.

Leadership elections were originally scheduled to be held before Thanksgiving but were delayed to give Democrats more time to discuss and process the election results and consider a path forward. Many are discouraged after losing the White House and making smaller than expected gains in both chambers of Congress.

“I believe we must do more than simply paper over the cracks,” said Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, one of a handful of House Democrats to endorse Ryan. “We can’t just say the right things — we must take concrete steps to move our party in the right direction.”

The 76-year-old Pelosi has been promising some changes to assuage concerns in her caucus, including adding a member of the freshmen class to her leadership team. But her proposals do little to ensure new blood at the very top or change the seniority system that has key committees led by lawmakers in their 80s at a moment when the party needs to be defending President Barack Obama’s health care law and other initiatives.

Nonetheless Pelosi projected confidence heading into the vote. Known for her vote-counting skills, the Californian asserted she had support of two-thirds of Democrats locked up.

“Leader Pelosi is honored to receive the overwhelming support of her colleagues,” said spokesman Drew Hammill. “That so many members are so enthusiastic and eager to take active roles in the caucus is music to her ears.”

Other top leadership posts are uncontested, with Steny Hoyer of Maryland expected to stay in the No. 2 job of whip, and Jim Clyburn of South Carolina in the No. 3 position of assistant leader. The position of conference chairman is term-limited, and Xavier Becerra of California is expected to be replaced by Joe Crowley of New York.

There is a contest for the position of conference vice chair between two California Democrats, Linda Sanchez and Barbara Lee. Either would become the first minority woman in leadership.

On the eve of the House leadership elections, 85-year-old Rep. Sander Levin, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, said he will not seek re-election to the panel post, clearing the way for a younger lawmaker to move into the spot on the powerful committee. Becerra and Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts told House Democrats they are interested in the position.

Republicans are on track to hold at least 240 seats in the House next year. Democrats, who had high hopes of significant gains in the election, picked up just six seats on Election Day earlier this month and remain in the minority with 194 seats.</s>U.S. House of Representatives Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi was re-elected to her post on Wednesday despite a challenge from a Rust Belt congressman who said the party needed new leadership after a disappointing showing in elections this month.

Ms. Pelosi (76), a Californian who has been in Congress for 30 years and led the party in the House for 14 of them, defeated Tim Ryan (43), a seven-term representative from the Youngstown area of northeastern Ohio in a 134-63 vote, aides said.

Mr. Ryan, in challenging Ms. Pelosi for the leadership job, said the party needed to do a better job of reaching out to the working-class voters who backed Mr. Trump in large numbers, and complaining about the Democrats’ track record under her guidance.

Mr. Ryan said the Democrats have only been in the majority in the House of Representatives for four of the past 18 years.

Mr. Ryan and other Democrats are angry the Democrats did not do better on Nov. 8. — Reuters</s>YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan has lost his bid to unseat Nancy Pelosi as the leader of Democrats in the House of Representatives.

Ryan received 63 votes to Pelosi’s , according to news accounts. If that total is correct, Pelosi succeeded in winning support of two thirds of the Democratic caucus, which she predicted she would.

In seeking to become minority leader, and provide new leadership for the party, Ryan focused on the Democratic Party’s failure to deliver blue-collar voters to Hillary Clinton on Nov. 8th, and to congressional candidates who lost their contests. He also proposed a number of changes in the structure of the House Democratic Caucus le, which would provide openings for younger members to work into leadership positions.

The Mahoning Valley congressman has scheduled a conference call with local reporters for 2 p.m. today.</s>Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi speaks onstage at the 2016 Global Citizen Festival in Central Park to end extreme poverty by 2030 (AFP Photo/ANGELA WEISS)

Washington (AFP) - Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday swept aside a challenge to her Democratic leadership in the US House of Representatives by a congressman from a blue-collar district who warned the party has lost touch with working-class Americans.

Pelosi, 76, retained her post as minority leader after an anxious closed-door vote in which she survived a challenge from congressman Tim Ryan of Youngstown, Ohio to extend her 13-year grip on party control in the chamber.

"Honored to be elected by my colleagues to serve as Democratic Leader. Let's get to work," Pelosi said on Twitter after winning the internal party vote 134 to 63.

Ryan, 43, had drawn support from Democrats discouraged by their party's loss in the November 8 presidential election and their failure to gain back many seats in Congress.

A seven-term lawmaker, Ryan put himself forward as a new-generation leader of a party caucus that stands accused of having forgotten working-class voters, many of whom helped elect the anti-establishment billionaire Donald Trump to the White House.

Pelosi, who backed Democrat Hillary Clinton in the presidential race, remains a powerful figure, having made history in 2007 by becoming the first female speaker of the House.

But the tally of 63 defectors voting against her suggests her grip on the leadership is weakening.

Ryan said he was "disappointed" by the result but felt optimistic that his message connected with colleagues.

"As Democrats, we need to talk about the economy. It's the issue that unites us," he said after the vote.

"I believe it in my heart that if we're going to win as Democrats, we need to have an economic message that resonates in every corner of this country."

Pelosi appeared to acknowledge the growing sense that her party has lost its connection to working men and women across large swathes of the country, where millions of struggling Democrats and undecided voters turned to Trump's populist anti-establishment message.

It is vital for Democrats to prove, she said, that "never again will we have an election where there's any doubt in anyone's mind where the Democrats are when it comes to America's working families."

Republicans have long mocked Pelosi for pushing her party into what they call "irrelevance," a message they repeated Wednesday.

"This year voters went to the polls and made a bold statement for change in Washington, but House Democrats just doubled down on the status quo," Republican National Committee co-chair Sharon Day said in a statement.

Democratic Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, a Ryan supporter, said she believed Pelosi understood from the vote that "change has to come."

"The message is that we are not going to continue to be a top-down-run caucus," she told reporters. "It is our caucus, it's not the leadership's caucus."

She also said it is imperative for Democratic lawmakers to engage more at ground-level with voters to earn back their trust and support, and to focus especially on economic issues, something she said the Clinton camp had forgotten.

In her largely Democratic Ohio district, she outpaced support for Clinton in the election, proof that her message connected more with working-class voters than the party's barrage of messaging about rights, race and inclusion.

"I talk to people about pocketbook issues, not social issues," Fudge said.

Pelosi defenders argue that she has been a bulwark against Republican efforts to privatize Medicare and shrink other entitlement programs that have serve as a safety net for millions of Americans.

House Democrat Elijah Cummings said Tim Ryan had "a very strong pitch" to lawmakers, many of whom wanted new blood at the top of their party, which has lost nearly 60 House seats to Republicans since President Barack Obama took office eight years ago.

"But this is a time when we need, I think, someone who has been battle-tested," he told reporters.

"And there is no stronger battle-tested person than Nancy Pelosi."

The congresswoman from San Francisco remains a tenacious vote-getter. She carried Obama's Affordable Care Act across the finish line in the House and wrangled enough votes for the 2008 financial bailout when many Republicans balked.</s>FILE - In this Nov. 17, 2016, file photo, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif. speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. Pelosi faces a challenge to her job as frustrated House Democrats meet to select a new slate of leaders. Pelosi is likely to be re-elected easily Nov. 30 despite disenchantment among the Democratic caucus she has led since 2002. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, file)
In Democratic Party congressional leadership elections, U.S. House minority leader Nancy Pelosi is re-elected, holding off the challenge by Tim Ryan. Democratic whip Steny Hoyer is also re-elected. Current caucus vice chair Joseph Crowley takes the caucus chairmanship. Linda Sánchez, in a three-way race, is elected the new vice chair.