Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi will go down in their history with the goal of uniting fragile Democrats

Mr Biden and Mrs Pelosi, who both hope to start taking additional steps to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, should join party members who have discussed issues such as expanding government health insurance, how much to spend on combating climate change justice policy.

The pair must also work with Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer of New York to win enough Republicans to clear that House’s 60-vote threshold for most bills. Senate control, which could determine the success or failure of much of the Democratic agenda, depends on the outcome of two Jan. 2 races in Georgia.

The last time a Democratic president took office, the party had a comfortable majority in the House and briefly held a super-majority in the Senate. This time, with two races not convened in the House, Democrats only have a few seats more than the 218 required for a majority in the House. Biden has approved three lawmakers in the House to exercise his administration, which will temporarily reduce the majority.

Mrs Pelosi will have to hold most of her caucus on Sunday as she asks for plenary approval for another term as rapporteur. He did not face any opposition within his party to remain its leader in a November vote.

He said it would be easier to unite its members behind a common agenda with a Democrat in the White House – when the legislation they pass is more likely to become law – than under President Trump.

“It’s a very unifying thing,” Ms. Pelosi said in an interview, noting that approximately 100 Democratic lawmakers in the House have never served with a president of her party.

Biden, through a spokesman, declined to be interviewed. “The respect and admiration of the president-elect for President Pelosi goes back decades,” Biden spokesman TJ Ducklo said. “Their strong friendship has its roots in a shared dedication to public service and in devotion to their families and their faith.”

Mr. Biden, 78, and Mrs. Pelosi, 80, have known each other for a long time before taking on two of the major jobs in American politics. Mrs. Pelosi recalls that she was invited to a party by Mr. Biden in Rehoboth Beach, Florida, in the late 1980s, when she was a new member of Congress.

He knew the then Delaware senator through party politics and at the rally he introduced him to his friends. The only problem: many heard her first name and confused her with professional golfer Nancy Lopez.

“I didn’t want to disappoint them; I just smiled, ”the speaker recalled laughing.

Over the years, the two established a friendship in which they refer to each other by their first names, a rarity for Mrs. Pelosi. Both are Roman Catholics and cite their faith as motivation for their service. Ms. Pelosi said they both carry simple rosaries in their pockets. The two went to Rome for Pope Francis’ inauguration in 2013.

When Mr. Biden, then a senator, defended the Violence Against Women Act in 1994, Ms. Pelosi helped whip up votes in the House. Mrs Pelosi later oversaw foreign spending on the House Appropriations Committee, while Mr Biden was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the two traveled together to Europe in 1997 with then-President Bill Clinton.

In the Obama administration, the White House often sent Biden to talk about deals with the speaker, including the rescue of the auto industry and the Affordable Care Act, said John Lawrence, then Mrs. Pelosi’s chief of staff.

“He felt that when he talked to Biden, he was talking to a colleague and someone who understood the congressional side of relations between the White House and Congress better than other people in the White House,” he said.

Ms. Pelosi has sometimes criticized Mr. Biden, especially when it comes to his relationship with sexual harassment.

During the 1991 confirmation process of Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas, Ms. Pelosi and other women legislators urged the Senate leadership, which included Mr. Biden, then chairman of the Judiciary Committee, to reconsider the appointment of the Judge Thomas in light of the sexual harassment. complaints made by Anita Hill.

In April 2019, Ms Pelosi said allegations made against Mr Biden for playing improperly did not disqualify him from running for president, but that he needed to be more cautious.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said Mr. Biden approaches the talks casually and is never in a hurry to make a deal. Ms. Pelosi is formal and works on a timeline, she said. But the couple trusts each other, he said.

Rohit Kumar, former deputy chief of staff to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), Said both Democrats know how to negotiate bipartisan agreements, but that Biden may be more inclined to do so.

“Biden is more moderate than Pelosi,” said Kumar, who is now co-director of PwC’s national tax office. “She’s willing to cut deals she wouldn’t be willing to make.”

Kumar said that during a 2012 meeting on a set of impending tax increases and spending cuts known as the “fiscal cliff,” Ms. Pelosi spoke at length about her opposition to efforts to weaken the tax on property.

Forty-eight hours later, Kumar said, Mr. Biden agreed to set property tax parameters at levels that would raise less money than Democrats wanted, though he did not accept calls from Republicans to repeal. the tax. Since then, Democrats have unsuccessfully tried to raise property tax rates and reduce the exemption.

Ms. Pelosi is known as an expert voter who seeks to find a common ground among her members and keep her party united by hard voting. Biden built his legislative career by establishing relations with Republicans and continued to approach them as vice president, to the dismay of some Democrats.

Some Democrats say their leaders are too quick to make deals with Republicans. In late December, while the leadership of both sides was negotiating a coronavirus relief package, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., NY) tweeted: “An important difference between GOP and Dems is that the GOP they take advantage of their right flank to get political concessions and generate enthusiasm, while the demos close their left flank in the basement, they believe this will make Republicans more pleasant with them. ”

An intraparty struggle could erupt to expand access to health care, which Ms. Pelosi says is one of her main goals. Progressives want to extend Medicare to all Americans. Instead, Mr Biden and Mrs Pelosi have proposed creating a public option to compete against private insurers.

The duo’s first challenge will be the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 342,000 Americans, shut down businesses and slowed economic growth. Biden has also said he hopes to provide a path to citizenship for the 11 million immigrants in the United States without permanent legal status and pursue policies to address climate change.

“I have no doubt he will be in the room all the time,” Phil Schiliro, the White House liaison with Obama-led Congress, said of Ms. Pelosi. “There won’t be a major conversation that the president-elect doesn’t include.”

Former Sen. Ted Kaufman (D., Del.), Biden’s longtime aide leading his presidential transition, said Democrats have always had diverse ideologies and that Mr. Biden joined the party behind ‘him in the November election.

“Democrats are not like Republicans, they don’t march on sticks and Nancy has always been able to keep that coalition together in the House,” Kaufman said. “It was the same coalition that helped the president-elect.”

—Richard Rubin contributed to this article.

Write to Natalie Andrews to [email protected] and Eliza Collins to [email protected].