House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Sunday she doesn’t mind Democratic congressional candidates distancing themselves from her — until after the 2018 midterm elections.
“I have not asked one person for a vote. I haven’t asked a candidate or an incumbent for a vote,” Pelosi said during an interview on MSNBC of her bid to become speaker should Democrats flip the House. “What is important, and I know better than anybody how important it is for us to win this election because I see up close and personal what the Republicans and this president are doing.”
“I say to the candidates, ‘Do whatever you have to do, just win baby,'” the California Democrat continued. “Only then, after the election, will I ask people for their support.”
Pelosi, however, did not shy away from touting her record, stressing how she was the “best person for the job.”
“I do not think our opponents should not select the leaders of our party,” she added. “The Republicans are spending millions and millions of dollars against me because they’re afraid of me, because I outraise them in the political arena, because I outsmart them at the negotiating table, and because I’m a woman who’s going to be a seat at that table.”
Pelosi has become a polarizing figure in Democratic politics as some in the party call for a younger, more liberal leader to take on President Trump and the GOP caucus on Capitol Hill. Republicans have leveraged her divisiveness into countless ad campaigns to turn out their own voters.
