Nancy Pelosi predicts that 2020 will be a lock for her party — a full year before voters head to the polls. The House Speaker had her poker face on when she told the Washington Post in an interview published Sunday that the Democrats will have their “races won by this November.”
That statement is not at all out of character for the famously shrewd Speaker. Pelosi’s confident — some might say arrogant — conviction shows an eagerness to project an image of unity and strength as her party suffers from caucus infighting and a clear lack of progress on their agenda.
Pelosi predicts early Dem victory
Pelosi told the Post in an interview Sunday that she fully expects the Democrats will maintain control of the House in 2020, taking to opportunity to add an especially Pelosian twist.
“I’m going to have our races won by this November,” Pelosi boldly pledged.
The Post noted that Pelosi lost 63 seats and the speakership in 2010, but she now says that her mistake eight years ago was letting the Republicans attack her and “mischaracterize” her policy, an error Pelosi promises not to repeat this time around. The Speaker’s path to victory, she said, will involve courting “moderate suburbanites and some rural voters frustrated by Trump’s reality-TV-style presidency,” and will avoid impeachment talk and the pursuit of “far fetched” legislation.
Pelosi had a warning for Republicans seeking re-election, opinng that Republicans in swing districts would be “vulnerable” and that those seeking re-election should “think twice.”
“It’s going to cost you millions of dollars, to win or lose. And if you win — say you win — you’re in the minority,” Pelosi added.
Pelosi eager to boost morale
Pelosi’s bluster seems rather out of step with her party’s fortunes of late. Indeed, the Speaker has had to spend a good deal of time raising Democrats’ spirits in the aftermath of the president’s exoneration by Robert Mueller of collusion allegations.
The Speaker whipped her caucus into shape immediately following the Mueller report gut punch, urging an emphasis on the agenda, namely health care, instead of impeachment even as she continues a dogged pursuit of Mueller’s full report from attorney general William Barr. But policy achievements have proven elusive since the Democrats swept to power in January on the strength of anti-Trump sentiment and promises to protect healthcare. Despite picking up a net gain of 40 seats in the House, Democrats have struggled to pass their agenda through the Republican-held Senate.
Pelosi has suffered a tumble since reclaiming the Speaker’s gavel for the first time in eight years in January amidst the longest government shutdown in history. She won plaudits from the left for her handling of her party’s border shutdown battle with Trump, which ended with the president invoking a national emergency after securing a only pittance for the wall from Congress. Nevertheless, the shutdown consumed Congress in the early weeks of the new session, and it was followed shortly by internal party squabbling that overshadowed Pelosi’s legislative ambitions.
While Pelosi did defeat insurgent challenges to her leadership position, her control of the caucus was called into question when she failed to rebuke a freshman lawmaker in March over comments widely seen as anti-Semitic. The row exposed a growing divide between the party’s center and an emboldened progressive wing that has pushed the party far to the left with proposals like Medicare for All, championed by several of the Democrats seeking the presidency.
For his part, president Trump is just as eager to let everyone know who’s going to win in 2020.
“We’re going to take the House back. We are. I feel totally confident,” he said during remarks at the National Republican Congressional Committee’s annual spring dinner.
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