Pelosi at center of GOP attack ads
Younger Dems say she’s in the way of a generational shift
WASHINGTON — While Democrats grow optimistic about their chances of taking control of the House in November, they are increasingly anxious that the presence of their longtime and polarizing leader, Nancy Pelosi, is making it harder for many of their candidates to compete in crucial swing districts.
Republicans, clinging to a 23-seat majority in the House, have made the House minority leader a central element of their attack ads and are portraying many of their opponents as tied to the California liberal. At the same time, some Democrats are expressing alarm that she is standing in the way of the next generation of leaders.
The tension was apparent recently, when Rashida Tlaib became at least the 27th Democratic House candidate to decline to say whether she would support Pelosi. Some Democrats fear that anti-Pelosi attacks aimed at the Democratic candidate in the special election in an Ohio congressional district helped push the Republican to a narrow lead.
The dynamic creates a conundrum for Democrats, many of whom rely on Pelosi’s fundraising prowess and admire her political savvy and status as one of the country’s most influential female leaders. But some also are beginning to speak out about how allowing Pelosi to remain in charge of the caucus could reduce the size of a Democratic wave in November or worse, imperil their ability to win the majority.
“People pretend that it isn’t a problem, but it’s a problem that exists,” said Rep. Brian Higgins, D-N.Y., who said he heard from frustrated colleagues concerned that the anti-Pelosi messaging cost Democrats in Ohio.
The tension is exacerbated by a growing generational rift in the Democratic caucus, with younger candidates and members looking to assert themselves against a leadership team that includes Pelosi, 78, and her top lieutenant, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, 79, of Maryland. Among the Democratic candidates who have declined to endorse Pelosi is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the 28-yearold Democratic Socialist from the New York City borough of Queens who has become a national star of the party’s left wing.
Tlaib, of Michigan, said it was time for a generational change, telling CNN that her constituents “don’t feel like they’re being heard, and I think that starts at the top with leadership.”
Republicans say Pelosi, who is well-known among voters from her four years as House speaker starting in 2007 and who wants to reclaim the job, continues to be a reliable shorthand for a liberal Democratic agenda.
About a third of Republican ads in the Ohio race mentioned or depicted Pelosi, and GOP strategists argued that Democratic candidate Danny O’Connor’s last-minute equivocating on the Pelosi question was a factor.
Pelosi and her allies pointed to the top-line reality of Ohio: A district that voted for Trump in 2016 by 11 points and for Republican congressional candidates by much bigger margins swung decisively to Democrats. The GOP’s reliance on anti-Pelosi messages, they say, reflects an inability to find any other effective issue — and to the extent she is a factor at all, her role is dwarfed by that of the president.
Pelosi has long touted her ability to navigate the complex internal politics of her caucus. “I think I’m worth the trouble, quite frankly,” she said last year after Democrats narrowly lost a Georgia special election where she was a centerpiece of GOP attacks.
Still, Democratic candidates across the country are being pressed about whether they support Pelosi, and regardless of how they answer, they are being subjected to GOP attacks tying them to her.
Ken Spain, a Republican political consultant, said Democrats are “going to leave seats on the table” as long as Pelosi remains a viable face of their party.
Even if Democrats win the House in November, he added, “it could be the difference between having a razor-thin majority and a governing majority. It’s a lot easier to move legislation when you have a cushion of votes to work with.”
In the Ohio race, outside Republican groups aired ads on a variety of themes — taxes, opioids, education, health care and seniors. But Pelosi ads dominated.
O’Connor said early on that he did not support Pelosi remaining as the top Democrat in the House — echoing the stance of Conor Lamb, the Pennsylvania Democrat who won a March special election in a GOPleaning district.
But GOP attack ads targeting O’Connor still highlighted Pelosi, and he gave those attacks oxygen a week before Election Day when, under questioning during an MSNBC interview, he conceded he would vote for Pelosi as speaker if the choice were between her and a Republican.
Higgins said Democratic candidates are trying to “customize their appeal” to their particular races, and the Pelosi questions complicate that task: “They are stuck with that question, and they do not deal with it well. You equivocate, and it jams you up, and it costs you votes,” he said.
Jesse Hunt, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said GOP officials saw no evidence in Ohio that Pelosi attacks have lost their potency. “When Nancy Pelosi becomes a central part of the discussion in any race, that is something we’re winning on because we’re not just talking about her, we’re talking about her policies,” Hunt said.
Asked by CNN last week if Pelosi had hurt his campaign, O’Connor returned to his preferred way of discussing the Democratic leader: As a figure from the past who needed to move aside.
“It tells me that folks are ready for a new generation of leadership,” O’Connor said.
Republicans have gotten little political traction from their tax cuts, as other economic changes — rising gas prices and blowback from Trump’s tariffs — have offset any financial lift. Instead, as a three-month sprint to November begins, Republicans are focusing on the fear of “open borders,” tax increases, the MS-13 gang, and Pelosi back in charge, overseeing a liberal caucus.
Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, DN.M., chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said that whether trained on Pelosi or any other issue, the Republican message has failed to resonate with voters.
“Republicans are on the brink of losing the House, and they are flailing,” he said.
Pelosi has been careful recently to keep her party’s message focused. She has not embraced calls for Trump’s impeachment; nor has she offered any actual support for a growing campaign on the left to eliminate the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. But Republicans say that, in the eyes of voters, Pelosi’s name is shorthand for extreme liberal policies — even those she does not personally support.
“To the average American — not the average Republican, the average American — Nancy Pelosi and her San Francisco liberal values are completely removed from reality,” said Corry Bliss, executive director of the Congressional Leadership Fund super PAC, citing focus-group research.