Huntington, W.Va. — House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has made clear she isn’t going anywhere, signaling to her caucus that she’s ready to “take the heat.” But that hasn’t stopped her loudest detractors from keeping talk alive that her days are numbered.
Rep. Tim Ryan, the Ohio Democrat who challenged Pelosi in 2016, said in July that he’s considering a run against her again if Democrats take back the House. Sitting in a university cafeteria, four weeks into the House’s long summer recess, Ryan said he’s still weighing his options. Pelosi had just blasted out an email to members that included a Miami Herald op-ed listing the five reasons it would be a mistake to replace her, Ryan said, scrolling through it on his iPhone.
“We’ve not closed the door on the leader race but the key is to get more members of the House elected that represent districts like the one I represent so we can have enough political push to get the kind of economic stuff done we need done,” said Ryan.
The Rust Belt Democrat, whose district went to Trump in 2016, has traveled across the country, stumping for Democratic candidates running to flip Republican-held seats and fundraising for himself. Last week, Ryan made a quick stop in Huntington, W.Va., at the invitation of Democrat Richard Ojeda, who is running to flip a deep red seat in the heart of Trump country.
Ryan says he won’t run unless he thinks he can beat Pelosi. “I’m not going to do it just to do it,” he stressed.
But the eight-term congressman was willing to talk through the many scenarios that could unfold after November. What happens if Democrats win by 40 or more seats? What happens if he challenges Pelosi and they both fall short of the votes needed to secure the speakership?
In recent weeks, Pelosi has dominated the headlines, providing interviews to the New York Times and Associated Press. In the former, Pelosi acknowledged that change would be coming sooner rather than later, saying she’s building the bridge to the new generation.
“If people want to be the bridge that I’m building toward, they have to show what’s on the other side of the bridge,” she said.
House Minority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., has pushed himself as that “bridge,” but Assistant Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., recently adopted the term as well in his pitch to be the replacement should Pelosi step aside.
“If anybody is going to be the bridge, it’s going to be Jim Clyburn,” said Ryan. “Jim brings change. He brings the African-American voter to the third highest position in the country. [He’s a] Southern Democrat who has worked with white lawmakers, Republican lawmakers [and] the business community his whole career in South Carolina.
“That’s kind of what we need: He’s going to make history, he’s going to energize our core constituency,” Ryan added.
Running through the numbers, Ryan said if all 20 of the veteran candidates being boosted by Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., a fellow Pelosi defector, win, then “almost all 20 would not vote for her.”
And out of the roughly 40 Democratic candidates who have said they won’t vote for her, Ryan predicted 30 of them win. Add those to the incumbent Democrats who backed him publicly during his challenge, he said, and the numbers start rapidly increasing.
Though Ryan said he wouldn’t sacrifice himself to make way for Clyburn, it’s one scenario that doesn’t appear too far-fetched. If Ryan runs against Pelosi and she doesn’t secure the votes necessary in the private caucus vote, it would provide an opening for Clyburn to step forward without directly challenging her, keeping his word that he’d only run if she falls short.
“Jim Clyburn is a very popular guy in our caucus, not just the Black Caucus,” Ryan continued. “He’s on our golf team, he’s friends with those of us that end up at the [Democratic] club couple times a week, [and] the Pennsylvania corner [representatives.]”
Still, Ryan is the only one publicly mulling a challenge to Pelosi, who has steered the Democratic caucus for 15 years and brought in massive fundraising hauls for the party. And she’s made known what she thinks of Ryan and Moulton: “inconsequential.”
“They don’t have a following in our caucus — none,” Pelosi told Rolling Stone in a Q&A published in July.
Pelosi’s downplayed the opposition rising in her ranks, telling the Associated Press it’s “not anything to make a big fuss over.”
“I can take the heat and that’s why I stay in the kitchen,” she told AP, adding that she wants to be an example to young women.
“If you think you’re the one that should be there, you make the fight,” she said.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who has grown close to Ryan as the two have traveled on their “Comeback Cities” tour, still thinks Pelosi can’t be beat.
“There will be a competitive election,” said Khanna, who joined Ryan in West Virginia last week. “[But] I fully expect if we win that she would be elected speaker.”
