Democrats Could Take The House According To Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Two months before election day and former Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi has signalled unexpected confidence within her party. Pelosi, now the House minority leader, is confident that the Democrats could secure enough seats in the upcoming election to once again take control of the House. Whilst Pelosi, 76, has remained pretty quiet about her party’s chances in the upcoming House election until now, she recently signalled that her party is preparing for the possibility of taking control of the House.
In an interview with Politico Playbook, Pelosi said she has been confident throughout this election that her party will pick up a few seats. However, her confidence has slowly grown throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, saying “Seeing the behaviour of the [GOP] presidential candidates right after that when the debates [happened], I became even more optimistic because they were so pathetic … Since then, I think anything is possible. I think it comes down to probably a single digit, one way or another.”
Pelosi: Democrats could take the House https://t.co/kxPt03GtWG via @JakeSherman & @annapalmer | Getty pic.twitter.com/s0Tlzatjx8
— POLITICO (@politico) September 8, 2016
Pelosi sees her party’s chances in the House dependent on Hillary Clinton’s success in the presidential election. If Clinton was to win by a margin of 54 to 46, Pelosi is confident that the Democrats would take control of both the House and the Senate alongside the presidency, but even a victory of 53 to 47 would be great for the party.
Leading Republican figures have consistently downplayed the possibility of losing the House to the Democrats. However, there’s been a lot of discussion over whether or not controversial Republican nominee Donald Trump will have an effect on House races across the country. It’s been a prominent possibility that Pelosi’s party could comfortably take control of the Senate, however, the House race is widely seen as a tougher battle, where a big shift would be required in order for Democrats to retake control.
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If Democrats do manage to take control of the House in the upcoming election, that leaves one key question. Will Pelosi run for speaker again? Nancy Pelosi served as the 52nd Speaker of the House of Representatives between 2007 and 2011 when Democrats held control of the House. However, she declined to state whether or not she’d run for the position again if her party managed to secure a majority in the upcoming election, but few believe she’d pass up the opportunity.
According to the Washington Post, Nancy Pelosi has, for a long time, been the figure targeted by the Republican party. A long campaign against her in 2010-11 gave the Republicans control of the house and left Pelosi as a widely unpopular figure. Republicans could very well launch a similar attack this year if Democrats come close to securing the House.
Nancy Pelosi on Hillary Clinton's growing email scandal: "Much ado about nothing" https://t.co/oJg4uMFfSr pic.twitter.com/Y6XhoumCvv
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) September 5, 2016
Despite a declining general popularity, Pelosi still commands great respect among Democratic House members, allowing her to comfortably secure the speakership if she wanted to. Pelosi did, however, signal the importance of the House, saying “We think that second to the president, the most powerful person is the speaker of the House. The Senate is more [constrained by] 60 votes and all that. There is awesome power in the speaker, and you can see what a difference that makes in passing an agenda.”
As Pelosi said, a Democratic speaker will be integral to implementing the policies of Hillary Clinton, if she beats Republican rival Donald Trump and is elected president. With that in mind, while the House race hasn’t garnered anywhere near the amount of attention as the presidential race, it could be just as important.
[Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images]
