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SC Democrat pledges to oppose Nancy Pelosi as US House Speaker

One of those is Joe Cunningham, who recently won the race for South Carolina's First District, which includes Charleston and Hilton Head.
Credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images

WASHINGTON — A group of 16 House Democrats signed a letter Monday pledging to oppose Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's bid to become the next House Speaker, according to media reports.

The current lawmakers and incoming members – five of the signatories were just elected – said that "the time has come for new leadership in our Caucus," according to a copy of the letter shared on Twitter by CNN reporter Manu Raju.

One of those is Joe Cunningham, who recently won the race for South Carolina's First District, which includes Charleston and Hilton Head. He's the first Democrat to represent that area in almost four decades.

"We are thankful for Leader Pelosi for her years of service to our Country and our Caucus. She is a historic figure whose leadership has been instrumental to some of our part's most important legislative achievements," they said.

"However, we also recognize that in this recent election, Democrats ran and won on a message of change," the letter said. "We promised to change the status quo, and we intend to deliver on that promise."

Only two of the Democrats vowing to oppose Pelosi, who was the first female Speaker in U.S. history, were

The sitting House members who signed the letter were:

  • Jim Cooper of Tennessee
  • Bill Foster of Illinois
  • Brian Higgins of New York
  • Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts
  • Seth Moulton of Massachusetts
  • Ed Perlmutter of Colorado
  • Kathleen Rice of New York
  • Tim Ryan of Ohio
  • Linda Sánchez of California
  • Kurt Schrader of Oregon
  • Filemon Vela of Texas

The five incoming members who signed are:

  • Anthony Brindisi of New York
  • Joe Cunningham of South Carolina
  • Ben McAdams of Utah (whose race against Rep. Mia Love is still too close to call)
  • Max Rose of New York
  • Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey

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