Nancy Pelosi so far has not had to battle progressive newcomer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in her bid to be House speaker because Pelosi is the most liberal option for the New York socialist.
Ocasio-Cortez hinted this year about wanting new leadership for House Democrats. But in the last few days, she has indicated she’ll back Pelosi, and said she has little interest in joining with other Democrats who are looking to topple the California Democrat.
Late Monday, Ocasio-Cortez all but dismissed a group of 16 House Democrats who say they’ll vote against Pelosi on the House floor, and said most on that list would be more conservative than Pelosi.
“If anything, I think that what it does is that it creates a window where we could potentially get more conservative leadership,” Ocasio-Cortez told MSNBC on Monday night. “When you actually look at the signatories, it is not necessarily reflective of the diversity of the party.”
“We have about 16 signatories,” she added. “Fourteen of them are male, there are very few people of color in the caucus, there’s very few ideological diversity. It’s not like there are progressives that are signing on, it’s not like you have a broad-based coalition.”
Ocasio-Cortez added that the 16 Democrats proposing to oust Pelosi haven’t articulated a vision beyond simply wanting new leadership.
“My main concern was that there is no vision, there is no common value, there is no goal that is really articulated in this letter aside from ‘We need to change,'” she said.
“If we are not on the same page about changing the systems and the values and how we’re going to adapt as a party for the future, then what is the point of just changing our party leadership just for the sake of that?”
Democrats who oppose Pelosi appear to have just enough people to deny Pelosi the speaker’s gavel if they vote against her on the House floor. But Pelosi is working to convince them, and in the meantime, no one has officially said they would challenge Pelosi.
But while Pelosi is for now the only Democratic candidate, Ocasio-Cortez said over the weekend that to her eye, others who could be lining up to challenge her don’t appear to be more liberal.
“My standard in this is: I’m going to support the most progressive candidate that’s leading the party, and right now that is Nancy Pelosi, in terms of running,” she said Sunday.
“I would like to see new, younger leadership, but I don’t want new leadership that’s more conservative.”
