Democrat Nancy Pelosi was re-elected Speaker of the 117th US House of Representatives.

“I consider it a gift.

I am looking forward to starting work with Joe Biden and preparing for the transition to the next stage, "Pelosi commented on her election.

In turn, Joe Biden, who won the presidential race, has already promised to fully cooperate with the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Pelosi was voted for by 216 Congressmen (out of 435), which provided her with the majority needed to be elected.

Her opponent was Republican Kevin McCarthy.

209 legislators voted for him.

As usual, the votes were divided strictly according to party lines: only representatives of the Democratic Party voted for Pelosi, and the Republican Party voted for McCarthy.

At the same time, McCarthy received the support of all party members present without exception.

Pelosi, on the other hand, could not secure the votes of all Democrats, since three Democratic congressmen decided to abstain, and two more voted for other Democratic representatives - Tammy Duckworth and Hakim Jeffreys.

However, several members of both parties were unable to attend the vote.

  • Nancy Pelosi

  • Reuters

  • © Tasos Katopodis

The vote on the candidacy of the speaker took place after the November US presidential elections.

Recall that then the Americans elected not only the president and vice president, but also all members of the House of Representatives, a third of the Senate of the Congress, as well as governors of 13 states and territories.

As a result of the vote, the Democratic Party lost part of the seats in the House of Representatives, but was able to retain the majority - they occupy 222 seats.

Republicans have 211 seats in the House.

Half a century in politics

Recall that Nancy Pelosi was elected speaker of the lower house for the fourth time: she held this post in the congresses of the 110th, 111th and previous 116th convocations.

Pelosi will turn 81 this March, of which she spent almost 50 years in politics.

At the same time, Democrat Joe Biden, elected president in November 2019, will turn 79 this year.

And the leader of the Republican majority in the Senate, Chuck Grassley, will celebrate his 88th birthday in September.

Thus, according to experts, the top leadership of the United States in the coming years will be one of the oldest in the history of the country.

However, not everyone in the Democratic Party agrees with this state of affairs.

For example, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a member of the US lower house of Congress, who is considered a representative of the so-called progressive wing of the Democratic Party, in December last year noted that the Democrats needed an update.

  • Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

  • Reuters

  • © Joshua Roberts

“The Democratic Party needs new leaders,” Business Insider quoted her as saying.

At the same time, she stressed that it will not be easy to change the party leadership.

Ocasio-Cortez blamed the situation on the left wing of the party, as well as on its more moderate representatives, who ignored the task of forming the next generation of party leadership.

“The processes within the House of Representatives have left very little room for continuity of leadership.

The speaker noted that at some point she may think about moving or resigning, but the left does not make plans in case of such a development of events.

This is what we need to think about, ”said Ocasio-Cortez.

Earlier, Nancy Pelosi really said that the coming two years at the head of the House of Representatives could be her last.

However, after her re-election, she did not promise that she would leave this post after the expiration of her term in office, but she did not give up her previous words either.

“Don't force me to be more specific, we didn't even expect another term,” she said, explaining her position by saying that she did not want to “weaken potential levers of influence”.

At the same time, as noted by the American edition of NPR, at the moment Pelosi has no obvious successors, and her closest deputies in the House of Representatives are in the same age category with her.

So, the leader of the Democrats in the lower house of Congress, Steny Hoyer, is a year older than Pelosi, and the organizer of the majority in the House of Representatives, Jim Cliburn, is her age.

"A problem for national security"

According to Konstantin Blokhin, a researcher at the Center for Security Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the prevalence of politicians of the Pelosi generation in key positions in the United States is a wake-up call.

“The fact that the rejuvenation of the US political elite is not taking place is dangerous for the country.

This is similar to the late period in the history of the USSR, when the country was led by age party functionaries, there was a shortage of personnel, as a result of which strategic mistakes were made, problems arose in domestic and foreign policy.

If the political elite does not reproduce itself and it does not have new ideas, then it stagnates, which can cause a problem for US national security, "he said in an interview with RT.

A similar point of view is shared by HSE Professor Alexander Domrin.

“This situation poses a threat to the States themselves, but the United States does not understand this.

Think about it: Chuck Grassley was first elected to the Iowa House of Representatives in the year when Khrushchev visited the United States, "the analyst said in an interview with RT.

Political analysts believe that the victory of Biden and Pelosi may be due to a number of reasons.

“In America, there is no such thing as generational turnover.

For example, the arrival of Ocasio-Cortez and other young socialists in politics became a big threat for conservative democrats, so they used all available methods to prevent them from participating in the 2020 presidential elections.

In addition, there are certain factors due to which Pelosi was re-elected - for example, the fact that she is a woman and a mother of many children.

These parameters, including gender, race and skin color, are of great importance in the United States today, ”Domrin said.

  • Joe Biden

  • Reuters

  • © Jonathan Ernst

Konstantin Blokhin adheres to a similar opinion.

“There is a certain political class in the USA that is trying to sit in its place and, in fact, prevents the emergence of new politicians.

In addition, influence groups are of great importance.

Biden and Pelosi have nominated certain interest groups, business elites, lobbying groups, ”says the analyst.

At the same time, Blokhin believes that many young American politicians, by and large, differ little from their older colleagues and do not put forward any new ideas.

“There are young politicians in the US.

For example, Republicans Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, but their ideas do not differ from the ideas of aging American politicians, ”he said.

At the same time, analysts emphasize that in this situation, for Russia it does not matter who heads the US House of Representatives.

With regard to the Russian Federation in the United States, a bipartisan consensus has developed, within the framework of which Washington is purposefully pursuing a policy of containing Moscow, experts remind.

Therefore, just as replacing Donald Trump with Joe Biden in the White House will not improve the situation in any way, any reshuffle in Congress will not affect it.  

“A hypothetical victory of the Republican nominees would not change anything.

In any case, the Congress will view Russia in a hostile manner, ”Blokhin concluded.