Nancy Pelosi finds herself in a fight for the role of House Speaker. Many Democrats campaigned on the theme they wouldn't support Pelosi for Speaker, knowing the animosity in their Congressional districts toward the Democratic leader. Of course, most of this animosity was planted and cultivated by right wing demagogues over the last two years in an effort to make Nancy the Hillary of the 2018 midterms. It didn't work, but still many freshmen Dems and a few senior ones have had their fill of Pelosi as their leader.
Marcia Fudge has emerged as the alternative to Pelosi, an outspoken Ohio Congresswoman who has the support of at least 17 renegade Democrats, if we are to believe the stories coming out of Washington. Fudge has been in the House since 2008 and feels Pelosi is out of step with the new Democratic majority. She has a point. Pelosi endorsed many of the new class's opponents during the primaries, most notably Joe Crowley in New York's 14th Congressional district. He was soundly thumped by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Democrats appeared to take the House in spite of Pelosi not because of her.
Making this fight even odder is that many Republicans are offering their support for Pelosi, including Donald J. himself, seemingly for no other purpose than to make her the "Theresa May" of Congress for the next two years. They would love to dump their big sack of woes on her, much like the British Tories dumped Brexit on May.
Careful what you wish for, as Pelosi knows how to fight. She wouldn't have survived the fallout from the 2010 Congressional debacle, when the Democrats lost the House in stunning fashion, if she didn't. This was the last time she faced a major challenge within her own party.
One of the fears in Pelosi is that she will be too willing to strike a deal with Trump to promote bi-partisanship. Trump has shown he will go anyway the wind blows, as he did last year when he teased "Chuck and Nancy" with an agreement on DACA to avoid a government shutdown. We all know how that turned out.
The Democrats should brook no compromise that doesn't suit their interests these next two years, as they swept the House largely because of all the animosity directed toward Trump and Republican leadership in Congress. They won big in suburban districts and even some rural areas that had traditionally been Republican. In one of the biggest surprises of the midterms, the Dems stole a seat from the Republicans in South Carolina, where Joe Cunningham beat Kate Arlington, whom Trump endorsed in the primaries over Mark Sanford. Cunningham is the first Democrat to represent the district in 40 years!
In all, the Dems gained 34 seats and are leading 5 other seats in recounts across the country. What many news pundits dismissed as a ripple on election night, has in fact become a wave, especially given the uphill battle Democrats faced in gerrymandered states. For once, CNN actually had a good documentary, The War on Voting Rights, which included a young Aussie lawyer and her American husband fighting gerrymandering in Wisconsin. Careful she doesn't get her green card revoked. Had it been a level playing field, these midterms may have rivaled the 2010 red wave, when the Republicans gained a staggering 63 seats in the House.
For Democrats, it is important to keep that momentum rolling. They can't afford any slip-ups over the next two years, as they hope to build on their gains in 2020 given the widespread antipathy toward Trump and Republican politics in general. This is their chance to Make America Blue Again.
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