House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi last week survived a serious challenge to her role as the top House Democrat largely because the caucus has in recent years shrunk to a group of mostly liberal lawmakers.
The more concentrated caucus of liberals remained loyal to Pelosi, who, as the congresswoman representing San Francisco, is among the most left-leaning lawmakers in Congress and championed President Obama’s liberal agenda during the two years when Congress and the White House were in Democratic hands, from 2009-11.
Liberal lawmakers this week ensured Pelosi, 76, would be elected to serve as the top House Democratic leader for a 13th year. They rejected her opponent, Rep. Tim Ryan, 43, of Ohio, who represents the rust-belt region of the country that helped carry President-elect Trump to victory on Nov. 8.
Ryan is considered more moderate than Pelosi. Over the years, rust-belt Democrats have watched their power in the Democratic caucus shrink, but Ryan argued Trump’s victory should give lawmakers from the region a greater voice in steering the Democratic caucus.
He told fellow Democrats last month that the party should shift its message away from cultural warfare and instead focus on solving economic problems and helping the working-class people such as those he represents.
Ryan called for a shakeup in the Democratic leadership, which has lost more than 60 seats since 2010 and has remained mostly unchanged for more than a decade.
“The American people need to know we understand that they elected us to fight for economic opportunity for all,” Ryan said when he announced his candidacy. “We need to create America 2.0 — a multicultural, progressive and innovative country that fights every day for ordinary people.”
The House Democratic Caucus was once home to dozens of moderates, many of them belonging to the House Blue Dog coalition, lawmakers who they say “represent the center of the House of Representatives and appeal to the mainstream values of the American public.”
There were 51 Blue Dog members in 2009. Today there are 15.
While Ryan is not a member of the group, a larger Blue Dog Coalition would have almost certainly backed Ryan over Pelosi, who they often clashed with regularly when she served as House speaker from 2007-11.
But Blue Dog Coalition numbers dropped dramatically after the 2010 swing election that wiped out the House Democratic majority. While the election was seen by many as a rebuke by the voters of the left-leaning policies passed by the Democratic-led Congress, it was the center of the party that suffered the greatest losses.
“When Democrats or Republicans lose House seats, it’s the moderates who are defeated first,” University of Virginia political science professor Larry Sabato told the Washington Examiner. “They are in the competitive districts, mainly. Democrats have lost dozens of seats since 2008, so the caucus is inevitably more liberal.”
Nathan Gonzales, editor and publisher of “The Rothenberg & Gonzales Political Report,” a nonpartisan newsletter, said Democrats are struggling to determine the direction of their party now that they have lost the White House and Congress, but they won’t necessarily move toward the center.
Many are looking to the populist ideas championed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., a socialist who challenged Hillary Clinton for the nomination, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. Both are considered far to the left of the long-gone moderate faction of congressional Democrats.
“Part of the challenge for Pelosi isn’t that she isn’t conservative enough, but that the messaging is off,” Gonzales said. “It’s culturally liberal, not economically liberal.”
Gonzales pointed out that the Blue Dogs are essentially fiscally conservative.
“Part of the challenge for Pelosi is that she is not pushing hard enough on economic issues,” he said.
