Pelosi ran unopposed but number of members who voted against her could signal a messy battle when new Congress convenes

House Democrats overwhelmingly nominated Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday to be the next speaker – but she failed to defuse a rebellion within her ranks, setting the stage for a potential showdown on the chamber floor when the new Congress convenes in January.

Nancy Pelosi looks poised to survive key test – but will victory be enough? Read more

The 203-32 vote represented a critical test of strength for the longtime Democratic leader, and proved she commands broad support from her caucus. But it also showed the size of task she faces to persuade the more than a dozen members who are calling for new leadership and whose votes Pelosi will need to win an absolute majority on the House floor at the start of next year.

The full House of Representatives, including Republicans, will elect a new speaker on 3 January. If Democrats win a final House race yet to be called after the midterm elections, and where their candidate is leading, they will hold 235 seats, meaning Pelosi could afford to lose 17 Democratic votes if all Republicans oppose her.

In brief remarks to the press as votes were being tabulated, Pelosi, who ran unopposed, said she was in “pretty good shape” and expressed confidence that she would overcome internal resistance to be the next speaker.

“I’m talking about scores of members of Congress who just gave me a vote – are giving me a vote of confidence,” Pelosi said. “That is where our focus is. Are there dissenters? Yes. But I expect to have a powerful vote as we go forward.”

In 2016, Pelosi lost 63 votes in the Democratic caucus election, nearly twice the number she lost on Wednesday. When it came to the floor vote, only four Democrats opposed her. This time could prove trickier after several new members vowed to vote against Pelosi as candidates.

Moments before the nominating contest began on Wednesday afternoon, Pelosi huddled with leading rebels, including congresswoman Kathleen Rice, of New York, and Congressmen Seth Moulton of Massachusetts and Tim Ryan of Ohio, who challenged her for the post of minority leader in 2016.

“We met with Leader Pelosi and tried to engage her in a reasonable conversation about leadership transition. Unfortunately, our concerns were dismissed outright,” Rice said. “We remain united behind our goal of new leadership and we intend to vote against Leader Pelosi in Caucus and on the floor of the House.”

Moulton, who circulated a letter signed by 16 Democratic incumbents and new members, that calls for a change in leadership, called on Pelosi to develop a “plan for succession”.

“No one wants to see this civil conversation spill into a floor fight,” he said in a statement. “Our request was, and has always been, simple. Produce a meaningful plan for a leadership transition, as you promised in the summer, to allow a new generation of leadership to step forward.”

The leaders of the so-called “Never Nancy” movement did not step forward to offer an alternative vision during the leadership election, a move that raised questions about their overall strategy.

“I don’t know how you elect somebody that’s imaginary,” said Joyce Beatty, a Democrat from Ohio who spoke on behalf of Pelosi during the vote. “You can’t vote for a person that’s not a candidate, so there we are. We have one candidate.”

Pelosi did, however, manage to reach an 11th-hour agreement with a bloc of moderate Democrats who had threatened to withhold their votes if Pelosi refused to commit to a set of House rules changes that would give rank-and-file members more influence in Congress.

After lengthy negotiations, the group struck a deal with Pelosi that they said would help “break the gridlock” in Congress.

Though Pelosi ran unopposed, the caucus chose to vote by paper ballot, which gave new members who ran on a promise to vote against Pelosi for speaker the opportunity to declare their positions.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Hakeem Jeffries will lead the Democratic caucus. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP

The leadership elections began earlier on Wednesday morning and were expected to last late into the evening and possibly into Thursday. To begin the process, Democrats elected Hakeem Jeffries, of New York, who beat the California congresswoman Barbara Lee in a competitive race for Democratic caucus chair.

Both are members of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Progressive caucus, and the choice left the caucus “torn”, according to Democratic congressman Gerry Connolly of Virginia, who wouldn’t say who he voted for.

After the vote, Lee, 72, who would have been the first black woman in Democratic leadership, said the party still had a ways to go to break down “institutional barriers” that prevent women and people of color from rising through the ranks. She said she “absolutely” believed ageism and sexism were factors in her loss​.

“That’s something women, especially women of color and African American women, in particular, have to fight constantly,” she said. “But we still have many glass ceilings to break for women of color.”

Jeffries’ ascent to the No 5 spot ensures that the caucus will have two African Americans on the leadership team for the first time.

​​​At 48, Jeffries will be among the youngest members of the leadership team alongside Ben Ray Luján, 46, who was unanimously approved to be assistant Democratic leader​ position after steering the House Democratic campaign arm during the 2018 midterm election cycle. Both ​are viewed by their colleagues as a potential​ heirs when Pelosi steps down. Their promotions could help allay concerns that the party is being led by three septuagenarian.

Pelosi now has the next several weeks to erode the remaining opposition to her nomination.

Brian Higgins, a New York Democrat who had signed a letter opposing Pelosi but endorsed her last week after securing a commitment on two legislative priorities, urged the holdouts to follow his lead and use their vote as leverage – before the fight spilled out onto the House floor.

“Democracy is a sloppy mess,” he said. “There are a lot of differing views, even within the Democratic caucus. The ability to pull that together is not clean and efficient all the time.”

He warned that if Pelosi’s opponents were to follow through with their threat to deny her the speakership on the House floor, “it would create the space for someone undeserving to grab it”.