House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., reclaimed her “San Francisco values” during a campaign stop in California over the weekend, saying “that’s what we’re about.”
Pelosi, who could return as House speaker in the 116th U.S. Congress if Tuesday’s 2018 midterm elections go well for Democrats, pushed back Saturday on Republican attacks lobbed at her for the largely liberal congressional district she represents. California’s 12th District covers most of San Francisco, a deep blue city.
“I don’t mind when they say things about me like I’m a liberal, I like that, I like that,” Pelosi told campaign volunteers in a video uploaded by New York-based journalist Azhar Fateh.
“But when they say San Francisco liberal, as if to make it sound like it’s something negative, them’s fighting words. Don’t attack my city. Don’t attack my city,” she said. “But San Francisco values, that’s what we’re about.”
The midterm cycle presents Democrats with the chance to flip the House and bring unity back to the chamber should they pick up 23 seats, Pelosi added.
“This is going to be an opportunity for us to be unifying, to be unifying — to respect the first branch of government, the legislative branch, the Congress,” she said.
This is not the first time Pelosi has defended her “San Francisco values,” a phrase used repeatedly used against her by Republicans hoping to gin up anger in their own base. The strategy has experienced success as some Democratic congressional members and candidates in competitive races seeking to win over moderate voters distance themselves from their presumptive leader.
There has been a growing chorus of voices discouraging Pelosi from vying for the speakership should Democrats seize control of the House, including from the Sacramento Bee’s editorial board. The newspaper wrote in August that Pelosi abandoning her ambition to be speaker would be best for the Democratic Party ahead of the midterm elections.
Pelosi herself has said she only sees herself as a temporary stalwart.
“I see myself as a transitional figure,” Pelosi told the Los Angeles Times in October. “I have things to do. Books to write; places to go; grandchildren, first and foremost, to love.”
