WASHINGTON — Democrats reelected Representative Nancy Pelosi to another two-year term as House minority leader on Tuesday, two weeks after elections in which the party lost at least a dozen seats in the chamber.
In a closed-door meeting of House Democrats, Pelosi was reelected by voice vote in a race in which she faced no challenger. The California Democrat has been party leader in the chamber since 2003, including four years in which she was the first female House speaker.
Number two House Democrat Steny Hoyer of Maryland and the party’s other top leaders also were reelected without a challenge.
Pelosi, 74, was victorious despite some grumbling that the leadership needs fresh blood and that the party did an inadequate job of selling its policies to voters. Pelosi told her colleagues that Democrats need to do a better job of focusing on helping the middle class, Democrats said.
Many Democrats also blamed their recent losses on an unfriendly political climate beyond their control, including President Obama’s unpopularity.
.