Analysis: Pelosi outlines a path to victory for House Democrats in 2020 — and guarantees it
By Paul Kane Paul Kane Senior congressional correspondent and columnist Email Bio Follow April 6 at 6:00 AM Barely three months into her second turn in charge, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has already mapped out a plan to overwhelm Republicans in the 2020 elections.Yes, the House speaker predicted that she will have locked down the majority a full year ahead of schedule, leaving the political battlefield to what she considers an intense presidential race all the way up to November 2020.
At the center of this storm sits Pelosi, 79, back where she ruled the House for four years last decade. Her office is assembled almost exactly the way she left it in 2010, a set of four chairs in a circle by the fireplace serving as the central nervous system for House Democrats. Through the window is a view of the Mall.
In 2018, she became her own biggest advocate, touting her insider expertise in a campaign to reclaim her old job as Republicans ran what her office estimates were 137,000 ads warning voters about the danger of “Speaker Nancy Pelosi.” Democratic candidates were given free rein to criticize her, inoculating themselves from the GOP campaign and leading to a net gain of 40 seats.
“Don’t mistake not voting for her and not having a great, deep respect and admiration for her skills and talents and her pragmatism,” said Rep. Ron Kind , one of her sharpest critics. “This is where, I think, her experience comes in handy. Because she has been around, she knows how this place functions.”In the interview, Pelosi dismissed the far left’s Medicare-for-all as a still emerging proposal that might provide worse health care than the landmark 2010 law she muscled through Congress.
“You cannot let your opponents characterize — mischaracterize — what you’re about. So, what was missing from that was a strong messaging piece, and that’s what we had in this last election,” she said. But Pelosi believes her endangered incumbents are shoring themselves up through a steady diet of town halls. And leadership is particularly pushing the freshmen running their first reelection to raise as much money as possible.
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