Nancy Pelosi wins House speakership by 2 votes

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
(Image credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has narrowly secured the 218-vote majority she needed to become House speaker again.

The 116th Congress convened for the first time on Thursday, and 220 members of its Democratic majority in the House voted for Pelosi as speaker. Another 192 lawmakers voted for outgoing House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), while 12 Democrats and six Republicans defected from the two main choices.

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Kathryn Krawczyk

Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.