Defiant Pelosi Says She’s Staying: ‘I Think I’m Worth The Trouble’

Ossoff was seen to have a 7 percent lead in some surveys recently, but relentless conservative attacks on the former Obama official-linking him to House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and even the comedian Kathy Griffin-seemed to galvanize the GOP base. “I need to step back and do what’s best for this party'”.

“I think you’d have to be an idiot to think we could win the House with Pelosi at the top”, said Filemon Vela, a Texas Democrat who supported Pelosi when she ran for the leadership previous year.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Ossoff would vote with Nancy Pelosi to weaken our military. “But she certainly is one of the reasons”. She is a great leader.

“I think there was consensus within the room that there are other members within the caucus who feel just like we do”, Vela told CNN.

The party leader’s defense comes as some younger members of her caucus have voiced concerns about the Democratic brand and appeal with Pelosi at the helm.

Pelosi’s allies have pointed out that numerous negative impressions that Republicans have of her are equally true of House Speaker Paul Ryan among Democratic voters.

“I’m not saying it’s fair but the perception in the world is that democrats are liberals, elitists from the coast who do not connect to working class people”, said Ryan. And Republicans say just narrowing the margins in red districts still spells a loss.

Those sentiments also were reflected by Ryan and Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Massachusetts), while Pelosi said Thursday at a press conference that she was “worth the trouble” and loved “the fray”.

She then went on to call herself a “master legislator”. “And for a long time now, since I was elected whip and leader, it was always about ‘do you support gay marriage?” But last night, Republican Karen Handel was able to declare victory over Democrat Jon Ossoff. “We’re paving a way for a new generation of leadership”.

Things are falling apart for Nancy Pelosi, and that spells good news for Pelosi’s Democratic primary rival Stephen Jaffe. It is a tactic that has been embraced since Republicans won back the House in 2010, and it worked again this time in high-profile contests in Montana and Kansas.

She also dismissed the notion that the Republicans’ longtime tactic to hold her up as a partisan lightening rod drags down public opinion about fellow congressional Democrats and candidates.

The road to a Democratic House majority runs through dozens of districts similar to the affluent, well-educated northern suburbs of Atlanta where Ossoff was defeated, and the outcome there is likely to reassure Republicans already nervous about their chances of holding control under Trump next year.