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Politics

Pelosi Loses Support From Democrats

The House vote that elected Republican John Boehner to succeed Nancy Pelosi as House speaker saw Pelosi lose the support of 19 fellow Democrats. That included two Democrats who voted for each other.

All 241 in the new Republican majority voted for Boehner while 173 Democrats backed Pelosi.

Eleven Democrats voted for North Carolina's Heath Shuler, while civil rights leader John Lewis of Georgia received two votes and five others received single votes. Two of those single votes came from California's Jim Costa and Dennis Cardoza, who voted for each other. One person voted "present."

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Still, the support for Pelosi, who led Democrats into one of their worst election defeats in years, was better than on Nov. 17, when 43 Democrats backed Shuler over Pelosi for House minority leader.