Nancy Pelosi is saying she’s not at all concerned about challenges to her leadership.
The House Minority Leader pushed back at talk that the victory of the Democrat’s Pennsylvania special election candidate Connor Lamb–who said he would like to see Pelosi replaced–was a referendum on her leadership in Congress’ lower chamber.
“I don’t think [Lamb] ran against me,” Pelosi told reporters. “I think he ran on his positive agenda.”
For the California Democrat, Lamb won because of his stances “protecting Medicare — preeminently that — being there for working families, got strong support from labor.”
“It was, I would think, a very issues-oriented campaign,” she added.
Pelosi noted negative ads from the conservative Koch brothers tying her to Lamb, and concluded that “I don’t think that really had that much impact on the race.”
She went on to accuser her detractors of being in opposition to “poor children” and “LGBT.”
“They’re coming after me because of my city and they’re against LGBT and they’re against poor children. That’s been my mantra, the poor children in America that I’m here to support.”
Pelosi accused Republicans of being “devoid of ideas” for how to help the country, and described herself as a “master legislator.”
“Let’s not read too much into this. This is part of a bankruptcy of the Republican Party. They are devoid of ideas about how they would meet the needs of the American people. So it’s an ad hominem.
“They can’t win on an issue, so they go after a person. I feel pretty confident about my ability to, first and foremost, be a master legislator for the good of the American people. I have proven that.”
Other Democrats have said challenging Pelosi is the key to their party taking back the House in the 2018 midterms, Politico reports.
Rep. Filemon Vela (D-Texas) said, “Running against Nancy Pelosi is going to help you a lot more than running with her.”
Via BizPAC
