Democrats struggle for right strategy after special election losses

“My leadership is recognized by many around the country”.

At a rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Wednesday night, Trump said: “If Karen Handel had lost, they would have blamed it on me”. Millions were spent in Georgia with ads linking Pelosi to Jon Ossoff, who lost to Republican Karen Handel on Tuesday. Yet voters weren’t persuaded to switch teams, just as in other recent special House races in South Carolina, Montana and Kansas’ 4th District, where Ron Estes’ 7-point margin of victory was seen as prosciutto-thin.

All the races were on GOP-friendly terrain.

The Massachusetts Democrat, speaking on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper” Wednesday afternoon, made his comments following his party’s failure to win a closely watched special election in Georgia. They must pick up 24 seats to do so.

“We’re paving a way for a new generation of leadership, and I respect any opinion that my members have”, she said. “He didn’t live in the district”, adding, “But I think it bodes well for the president’s agenda for now”. Trump wrote, referring to Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. “If elected, I will not vote for Nancy Pelosi for speaker”.

Pelosi brushed off the tweet, contending that Trump hadn’t actually written it himself because “it’s a classic Republican line”.

A successful Republican strategy in Tuesday’s race for Georgia’s 6th Congressional District included promoting a relentlessly anti-Pelosi message to drive out the conservative base. Democrats are left to wonder whether they should have poured resources into the SC race instead. Unless the Democrats start winning more than just moral victories against a deeply unpopular president, her days as party leader could be numbered.

Pelosi dismissed concerns that she will be an albatross on members of her party in the 2018 midterms, arguing that she is a prolific fundraiser for Democrats, a savvy strategist and a “master legislator” who has kept her conference unified.

During Thursday’s press briefing, Pelosi took several questions about her future in the role of minority leader for the Democrats.

He said the Democratic Party, however, isn’t self-aware enough to realize that they’ll always have an uphill battle if she’s the face of the party. Rice said. “I want to win”.

Whether or not Pelosi was the only reason for the Democrat’s defeat is speculation, but nonetheless there are growing calls for her ousting. The challenger, Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), is even more brutal, warning, “Our brand is worse than Trump’s”. “When you have that kind of an environment, it’s necessary to raise the resources to fight back”. “They don’t have Clinton or Obama so this is what they do”.

Mrs. Pelosi has been her party’s leader since 2003, overseeing losses in 2004, big gains in 2006 and 2008, then watching as her party slipped into its smallest minority in almost a century.