They will change their tune if they are elected.
Via Fox News:
Anyone looking for signs that Nancy Pelosi has lost clout within the Democratic ranks this cycle need only catch a glimpse of last week’s candidate forum in New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District.
When 10 Democratic candidates were asked if they’d support the House minority leader for speaker if elected and the Democrats regain the chamber’s majority, only one raised his hand. Their hesitation speaks to a growing uneasiness among this year’s midterm candidates – especially in swing districts – with the veteran California Democrat’s grip on power.
In New Hampshire, the candidates’ response on the Pelosi question was telling given the nature of the electorate. The seat in play, currently held by retiring Democratic Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, represents a swing district in a swing state.
Perceived Pelosi ties could hurt the Democrats’ bid to hold the seat in the fall. In Pennsylvania, Democrat Conor Lamb surely made similar calculations earlier this year when he vowed not to support Pelosi for speaker – and went on to win a special election in a deep-red district that President Trump carried in 2016 by 20 percentage points.
With his defiance, Lamb started a trend – seen in the New Hampshire forum and races across the country.
Since then, some 20 Democratic congressional challengers in districts controlled by Republicans have publicly distanced themselves from Pelosi.
Among them are Clarke Tucker, the Democratic nominee in Arkansas’s 2nd District who declared in a TV commercial that “I’ve said from day one that I won’t vote for Nancy Pelosi.”
Dan McCready, the Democratic nominee in North Carolina’s 9th District, said earlier this spring, “It’s time for a change and that starts at the top.”
And Dan Kohl, the Democratic challenger in Wisconsin’s 6th District, told Fox6 in April that “if I’m elected to Congress, I would not vote for Nancy Pelosi as leader of the Democrats.”
Whether the rank-and-file rejection might actually imperil Pelosi’s bid for the gavel – if Democrats take the House – remains to be seen. But the statements reflect a growing midterm strategy of Democratic candidates distancing themselves from the longtime liberal leader. This, as President Trump and fellow Republicans try to cast Pelosi – along with far-left colleagues like Californian Maxine Waters, who stirred controversy over the weekend with her call to harass Trump Cabinet officials – as the 2018 “face” of the party.
Pelosi, 78, has led the House Democrats for 15 years and after her party won back control of the chamber in 2006, she made history as the first female speaker. The San Francisco politician lost the speakership after the 2010 election, when the GOP took back the House.