Pelosi top fundraiser moves to House Democratic super PAC

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) top political fundraiser will be moving to lead the House Majority PAC, the main fundraising arm responsible for maintaining a Democratic majority in the lower chamber. 

The Washington Post first reported that Mike Smith, who has served as the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s (DCCC) deputy executive director and as Pelosi’s political director, will now be “senior adviser” for the House Majority PAC. 

Robby Mook, a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Reserve who currently serves as the PAC’s president, will be leaving for a year of active duty overseas, the Post reported. 

In response to the leadership change, Pelosi said in a statement, “I have been so appreciative of Robby’s work to protect and expand the Democratic majority and we are so proud that he is also doing his patriotic duty in service of our great country by going on active duty with the Naval Reserves.” 

The Speaker went on to say that “Smith, who has been a trusted and talented aide for many years, is excellently equipped to help communicate the Democrats’ agenda to rebuild our country and economy after COVID to voters across the country.” 

The Hill has reached out to Pelosi’s office for additional information. 

House Democrats are seeking to expand their majority in 2022 after underperforming in the 2020 elections, when they gave up a total of 11 seats, losing 13 incumbents but picking up two representatives in other districts. 

Smith, who previously worked on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, will oversee fundraising efforts as more than a dozen Democratic incumbents could lose their seats to Republican challengers. 

The DCCC’s chairman, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (N.Y.), said Wednesday that he has commissioned a report into the party’s election failures in 2020, including a look at “why the polling sucked.”

While Democrats were expecting to pick up seats in 2020 and add to the majority in the House that they secured in 2018, the party entered 2021 with the smallest House majority in modern history. 

Maloney said Wednesday that he believes Democrats will keep their hold over the House in 2022, adding he believes the party can still grow its majority “because we’ll defeat the pandemic, get the economy roaring again, and we’re not divided like the Republicans, who are trying to decide between the QAnon mob or whether to be a responsible governing party. They’re having a civil war with each other.”