And who can blame them?
Since the Democrats won the House, it’s now come time to pick a House Majority Leader. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was the obvious choice…at least to Nancy Pelosi, who said that there is a 100 percent chance that she’ll be majority leader again.
It turns out, however, that Democrats aren’t too keen on handing Pelosi the gavel back anytime soon. According to a new Gallup poll, the majority of Democrats would rather she take a step back from the leadership role as reported by Fox News:
A new Gallup poll shows that by 56 percent to 39 percent, Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said Pelosi (D-Calif.) should be replaced as their leader in the House.
The question was posed to Democrats in Gallup’s Oct. 15-28 poll, conducted before the party won back control of the House in the midterm elections.
It’s not likely that she won’t receive the title despite the majority of the party wishing she’d take a more ancillary role in the party. According to Republican strategist Matt Braynard, winning parties “tend to dance with the leader that [brought] them.”
“It’s really unfortunate because her negative ratings are twice what [Donald Trump’s] are. She’s a millstone around the neck of the Democratic Party,” Braynard told Fox News. “And if she really cared about their interests, she would take this time to step back, groom a successor — which she has not done — and allow a fresh face to come forward while remaining a power, a force behind the scenes.”
Democratic strategist Howard Franklin also believes Pelosi will be leader again.
“I do believe she’s got a lot of reason to expect that even some of the people who have said less than positive things about her coming back into the role will ultimately vote to support her,” Franklin said.
The dislike of Pelosi and the lack of confidence in her from her own party was noted as far back as February when Pelosi was making some party members nervous with her attacks on the well-received GOP tax cuts. Then there was also her ill-fated filibuster where Pelosi threatened to withhold spending cut votes unless Republicans gave Dreamers protections. She was blown off by Republicans, further making the party look weak and foolish.
According to UPI, Pelosi is already meeting resistance in other Democrat candidates:
Eight other new Democratic lawmakers have said they oppose Pelosi in the role, but have not said whether they would vote for her if she wins a caucus vote. Among those against her as speaker are Reps. Rashida Tlaib, Haley Stevens and Elissa Slotkin from Michigan; Mikie Sherrill and Jeff Van Drews of New Jersey; Anthony Brindisi of New York; Jahana Hayes of Connecticut; and Joe Cunningham of South Carolina.
President Donald Trump, however, believes that if anyone should have the position, it is Pelosi. What this means, and why he said it is up for debate, but it should be noted that at one point, Trump was referring to Pelosi as his “secret weapon” due to her over-the-top sensationalism and sore-loser attitude that was so easy to mock it turned her into a meme.
“She’s our secret weapon. I just hope they [the Democrats] don’t change her. She’s really out there. And I’m supposed to make a deal with her?”
Join the conversation as a VIP Member