Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez just provided another reminder as to why House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., could be booted from party leadership after the midterms.
Pelosi’s unpopularity usually comes up in swing districts, where Democratic House candidates strategically distance themselves from her to burnish their centrist credentials. That dynamic was on full-display in the high-profile Ohio special election that was decided this week. Republicans squeezed every last drop out of Danny O’Connor’s admission he would support whomever Democrats nominated for speaker.
But Pelosi is also controversial on the far Left.
Asked by CNN’s Chris Cuomo on Wednesday whether she would back Pelosi for speaker, Ocasio-Cortez said she wouldn’t answer until after the election. “Well I think, we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, as you mentioned. I’ve got to win my race first,” she remarked. “But we’ve got to take a look at what’s going on. We’ve got to take a look at winning the House back in November. And then once the House is won we have to make that decision from there.” (Ocasio-Cortez said something similar last month.)
It’s a fresh reminder that cracks in Pelosi’s coalition aren’t only at the party’s right end. Some progressive House members, including Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., and Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., have indicated they believe it’s time for the 78-year-old minority leader to step aside.
Pelosi is known for her fundraising skills, and if Democrats manage to take back the House by a sizable margin, she’ll have a good case for reclaiming control of the gavel. But Ocasio-Cortez’s primary upset of longtime incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., left many Democrats wondering if it was time to pass the torch to a younger generation. Crowley was widely considered to be the most likely member to take Pelosi’s job should she step down, or face significant pressure to leave the leadership post. Ocasio-Cortez is also quickly becoming a leader among young progressives, giving her position on the question outsize influence.
Anti-establishment sentiments are high on the Left (and across the board) this year, and progressive as she may be, Pelosi is the face of the establishment. If a new wave of anti-Pelosi Democrats from the center and the Left is elected this November, that coalition could be big enough to put her leadership job in jeopardy.
