Democrat Conor Lamb sang it loud, clear, and early: He would not support House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., if elected to Congress.
“He ran a bloody ad on it for God sakes,” said Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Ore.
Lamb, a 33-year-old Marine veteran and former prosecutor, ran as a centrist Democrat in a district Republicans have held the last 15 years, and that President Trump won by 20 points in 2016. Democrats never imagined one of their own could close such a gap in an R+11 district — they didn’t even recruit Lamb.
Had Lamb ended Tuesday 1 to 2 points behind Republican candidate Rick Saccone, Democrats would still be claiming a victory. Instead, Lamb is holding onto a 627-vote lead. His apparent but once unthinkable triumph can be partly attributed to the distance he put between himself and his party, repudiating Pelosi repeatedly. A number of Democrats said that it was a crucial part of his path to success .
Rejecting Pelosi, Schrader said, allowed Lamb to focus on the issues and remain untouched by Republican ads linking him to the Democratic leader.
“That’s how you get credibility for [voters] to even listen to you,” Schrader said. “If you’re in an R+ 20 district and you say, ‘Well, I’m not sure if I’m going to vote for Pelosi for leader,’ you’re done. They’re not going to listen to another word you say.”
Until a candidate says they think “it’s time for new leadership,” Schrader advised, “you’re in trouble.”
Schrader, who runs the Blue Dog PAC, didn’t vote for Pelosi last leadership election. Lamb would join the ranks of the Blue Dogs in the House if his lead holds in the 18th Congressional District, where voters turned out of the special election Tuesday.
More candidates are expected to spurn Pelosi, multiple members said after the special election. If it helps elect more Democrats to Congress, they mused, why not promise to vote against her?
“It’s going to snowball,” said one House Democrat. “There’s no way people are going to watch this and not completely do what Conor does.”
“Even in a Democratic primary, I don’t care where you are in the country, everybody wants a change,” the Democrat added. “They know that Democrats are in the wilderness.”
Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J. said it made perfect sense for Lamb to buck Pelosi, but didn’t think it was the reason he won. “It was a lot more than that, he provided a platform which was a lot more conservative,” Pascrell said.
As for the question of Pelosi’s future, Pascrell praised her leadership, and said when the time comes for someone new there won’t be a war.
“There is no question in my mind that we need to look perhaps at a different path,” he said. “[But] it will not be a coup, we’re not into coups.”
Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said the outcome in Pennsylvania proves “candidates should always focus on running authentic campaigns that explain the candidate’s call to public service and have a laser-like focus on economic issues on voters’ minds.”
The race also revealed, Hammill said, that GOP proposals to cut Medicare on top of their tax plan are “poison” for Republican candidates. Despite efforts to focus on the Republican tax overhaul and multiple visits by Trump to boost Saccone, Republicans couldn’t hold onto the seat.
Though Democrats itching for a change at the top were bolstered by Lamb’s win, so too were those who say Republican attacks on her are a tired, ineffective trope.
“I don’t think it moves any voters and it doesn’t appear to energize any voters,” said Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky. “The lesson from that election is Trump is toxic and Republicans are demoralized.”
The real takeaway from Pennsylvania, Yarmuth said, is “there are easily 100 seats in play.”
