A prominent newspaper in House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s, D-Calif., home state of California demanded she publicly declare she will not seek to become House speaker should Democrats sweep to power in November’s midterm elections.
“The Republican Party is now clearly the party of Donald Trump,” the Sacramento Bee’s editorial board wrote Wednesday. “The Democratic Party cannot be seen as the party of Nancy Pelosi and win in November.”
“To retake control of the House, Democrats need to gain at least 23 seats in November,” the editorial continued. “That’s no easy task. And it’s even more difficult now that Pelosi’s future has become a distracting campaign issue for Democrats in key swing districts, where they need moderate and even Republican votes to win.”
[Survey: Democrats are fed up with Nancy Pelosi]
Pelosi has become a divisive figure in electoral politics as Republicans use her face and statements in advertisements designed to drive their voters to the polls. But she is equally scorned by members of her own party for not being liberal enough, as congressional candidates facing tough elections distance themselves from her on the campaign trail.
“With her three decades in Congress, Pelosi can still have a voice advocating for California and the issues she cares about,” Sacramento Bee’s editorial board added. “But if she truly believes what she says about how important it is for Democrats to retake the House so they can stop Trump, she must accept that it can’t be with her as speaker.”
