No Democrat is gearing up to challenge Nancy Pelosi in public, but behind the scenes some Democrats are saying it’s time for new blood at the leadership table ahead of 2016.
Senior aides said they hope the party’s big losses Tuesday would encourage the minority leader to expand her network of allies and advisors to include a broader set of voices for crafting election messaging and congressional agendas.
“If I had to make a bet, I think she would be the leader this coming cycle but folks hope that Nancy Pelosi will reach out and include some folks that aren’t often included,” a senior Democratic staffer said.
(House election results by state)
The House Democratic leadership elections will be held on Nov. 18, a week after the GOP formally chooses its leadership, said Democratic sources.
Nearly a dozen senior aides and Democratic insiders said there is a desire for a broader election message from party leaders. There are complaints about Pelosi focusing so strongly on women without a broader message that could play to other groups, such as older voters and men.
“As a party, we need to change,” a separate senior Democratic aide said. “[Voters] like our policies. All this leftie [talk], the country likes but somehow the message about us as individual members of conference isn’t breaking through. There is great unrest.”
(POLITICO's 2014 race ratings)
At least one new Democratic lawmaker, Gwen Graham of Florida, has already said she won’t back Pelosi as leader, although other Pelosi allies have come out in support of her.
“I am not Nancy Pelosi. Neither am I Barack Obama or Harry Reid. I am Gwen Graham,” Graham said. “And I am going to go to Washington and represent this district so incredibly well, and represent all of the counties of this district.”
The private grumbling about Pelosi is unusual. Unlike House Republican leaders who have faced a continued threat of rebellion from conservative members, Democrats are far more loyal to Pelosi, in part because of her prolific fundraising prowess. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced earlier this week that Pelosi had raised more than $100 million for Democrats this cycle.
(WATCH: Election Day 2014 videos)
Pelosi, for her part, has told her fellow Democrats she plans to seek another term atop her party’s leadership table, maintaining her iron grip on a caucus she has ruled for a dozen years.
The California Democrat started Wednesday with congratulatory calls to winning members, laced with the message that she fully plans to stick around as minority leader - and that vote may come in the next two weeks.
“To succeed, we must inspire, educate and remove obstacles to participation,” Pelosi said in a letter to Democrats. “This basic and even non-partisan challenge, which many of you told me you share, have convinced me to place my name in nomination for Leader when our caucus meets.”
Leadership aides readily admit Steve Israel, who is leaving his post at the DCCC, was handed a very difficult challenge to protect seats when voters were highly pessimistic and Republicans were buoyed by a wave of outside money.
Democratic Reps. Jim Himes (Conn.), Donna Edwards (Md.), and Jared Polis (Colo.) are being floated as potential replacements for Israel at the DCCC, although Pelosi hasn’t tipped her hand on who she will support.
Democrats across the board said 2014 would always be a slog of an election. President Barack Obama is handily unpopular across the country and the map just didn’t favor Democrats. There was also broad enthusiasm problems with liberal voters who felt let down by the Obama administration.
Even in the minority, the DCCC consistently out-fundraised their Republican counterpart, the National Republican Congressional Committee. This election, the Democrats brought in $172 million in fundraising compared to the GOP’s $131 million. But that money was dwarfed by the millions injected into competitive races from Republican-aligned PACs seeking to blitz the airways with GOP-friendly ads.
“This is onslaught of money is huge factor,” said California Democrats Rep. Barbra Lee. “I think we saw over and over again, Koch brothers money, Karl Rove money…and this was serious. They will do everything they can do to one and it really does erode the ability of regular folks…to participate in the Democratic process.”
Younger members want to see a broader economic message communicated with voters that doesn’t heavily focus on minimum wage and equal pay - issues they say were at center of the House’s narrative but don’t bring moderates and independents to the polls.
“We need a message that will resonate not just to the Northeast United States,” a senior Democrat said. “Our message doesn’t resonate in those [in-play] seats.”
Republicans will pick up at least 14 seats after Election Day - mainly from vulnerable Democrats in moderate districts - along with losing the Senate and a number of high-profile governor seats. But a number of Democrats faced unanticipated tough re-election battles.
Rep. Louise Slaughter, the top Democrat on the Rules Committee, still hasn’t been declared the winner in her Rochester-district. And New York Democrat Rep. Dan Maffei and Nevada Rep. Steven Horsford both lost their bids to Republican challengers.
“We got pistol-whipped this election,” Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said. “We lost a lot of good members and we’re coming back with a smaller range of opinions. My view is that the two big issues is gridlock and the economy and that’s what we should have talked about morning, noon and night.”
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus are privately grumbling to leadership that Horsford, an African American, lost his reelection bid. The Nevada Democrat was widely considered an up-and-coming leader within the caucus. Lee said the loss “disappointed” her but did not cast the blame onto Israel or Democratic leadership in an interview.
Also, part of the frustration, senior staffers said, is that ambitious younger members see no room to move within the conference. Pelosi, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, of Maryland, and Assistant Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn, of South Carolina, have held seats in leadership for decades and few expect any of the three to retire imminently.
Democrats are also returning to Washington in a vastly different legislating position than the last two years. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) was often forced to deal with Democrats to get votes to pass key legislation like the debt ceiling or government shutdown. But with a growing number of Republicans, Democrats will likely have a less important role in the House.
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