Pelosi makes power play as she launches leader election bid

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Wednesday launched her official bid to lead the Democrats in the next Congress, issuing a letter that included a clear warning to would-be challengers that she’s got the vote locked up.

“It is with both humility and confidence that I write to request your support for House Democratic Leader,” Pelosi wrote in a letter to all House Democrats. “As of this writing, I am pleased to report the support of more than two-thirds of the Caucus.”

{mosads}The whip tally adds an unusual beat to this year’s “Dear Colleague” request, as Pelosi has gone largely unchallenged since rising to the top of the party in 2003.

But this is no usual year for the beleaguered Democrats. Pelosi is facing a groundswell of frustration among rank-and-file members who are dispirited by the party’s disastrous election cycle and concerned that their message has lost its punch, especially among the white voters in the Rust Belt who launched Donald Trump into the White House.

“Clearly our message hasn’t resonated, especially with people in the middle of the country,” Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) said Wednesday. “How are we going to change? How are we going to talk more about the economy? How do we give voice to the younger people in our caucus, who are right now shut out from leadership opportunities?”

Those frustrations surfaced in dramatic fashion on Tuesday during the Democrats’ closed-door caucus meeting in the Capitol, where an outcry from members moved Pelosi to delay the party’s leadership elections — initially scheduled for Thursday — to Nov. 30.

The campaign for a delay came largely from younger members, who are pushing for major changes in Democrats’ messaging and outreach strategy following last week’s election drubbing. Those voices have so far stopped shy of calling for a change in leadership but have insisted more time is needed to study the failures of the last campaign and devise a strategy for both countering the Trump administration and returning the Democrats to power in 2018.

“It’s important that members of our caucus have the opportunity to discuss and talk through things they thought went right and things they thought went wrong,” Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) told The Hill.

“I don’t think that you can come in and say that the way forward for Democrats is to do exactly what we’ve been doing,” echoed Moulton. “I mean, that’s Einstein’s definition of insanity.” 

Moulton, who led the push to delay the leadership votes, said his objective is to concoct a winning strategy, not launch a coup. 

“If the current leadership team comes back to us with a strategy for real, serious change so that we can win in 2018, and they have the best strategy that’s presented, then we should vote for them,” he said. 

Pelosi, in her letter, said she’s “deeply grateful” for the feedback she’s received from members since the elections, vowing to tap their “wisdom and leadership” in crafting a vision and strategy in the next Congress. 

“To be a strong voice for hard-working families and to uphold the values we cherish as Americans, House Democrats must be unified, strategic and unwavering,” she wrote. “These qualities took us to victory in 2006 and I believe they will do so again. We must start now!”

But there was some grumbling on Wednesday that the letter failed to acknowledge the protest message from the rank-and-file just the day before. And the election results are not the only factor at play. Pelosi and her top lieutenants — Reps. Steny Hoyer (Md.) and James Clyburn (S.C.) — have led the party for roughly a decade, creating a bottleneck at the top that’s frustrated younger members looking to advance.

Hoyer, announcing his bid for whip in the 115th Congress, acknowledged those frustrations. 

“We clearly cannot keep doing the same thing cycle after cycle and expect a different result,” he said in a statement. “It is imperative that we bring younger, more diverse members into the decision-making process.”

Many Democrats are voicing another frustration: The top five leaders all hail from coastal states. To win back the rural, white, working-class voters who gave Trump the White House, the party also needs leaders from “flyover country,” according to Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio).

“This isn’t about the past election. In my mind, this is about the next election,” said Ryan, who’s mulling a challenge to Pelosi.

“Who is the leader who can go into those Southern states? Who is the leader that can go into the Midwestern states and begin to pull those voters back into our [camp]? That’s the question. That’s the discussion that needs to happen.”

Highlighting another internal division, Democratic leaders, while vowing to fight Trump’s conservative agenda when necessary, have also emphasized that they want the next administration to succeed for the sake of the country. Some younger Democrats have a different mindset.

Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) said the Democrats should revamp their strategy “to make sure that we’re an effective caucus to put up the opposition to Donald Trump and to make sure that he is only a one-term president.”

Pelosi, a popular leader and prolific fundraiser, has a broad support base within the liberal caucus, one that’s likely enough to put her back in power even if a challenger does emerge. But she’s also acknowledging the historic moment ushered in by Trump’s victory and the challenge facing Democrats hoping to counter his agenda.

“This Congress will be an historic one because, in some ways, our nation stands at a crossroads,” Pelosi wrote.

For the moment, the Democratic Party does, too.