Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) had a message for her party’s midterm candidates who have campaigned on removing her from House leadership: “Just win, baby.”
The top House Democrat on Tuesday brushed off concerns about several 2018 candidates telling constituents that they do not support her as leader, telling Politico Playbook: “I think if they have to do that to win the election, I’m all for winning.”
She continued: “I think many of them are saying we need new leadership. I don’t take offense at that.”
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Rep. Conor Lamb (D-PA), who won in a shocking upset earlier this year in a gerrymandered district President Trump won by almost 20 points, often said on the trail that he would be supportive of new Democratic leadership. Despite that, Republican outside groups still attempted to tie him to Pelosi, who they view as a drag on all Democratic candidates this cycle.
Pelosi has recently said that she still plans to remain as the top Democrat, and is bullish on the odds the Democrats taking back a majority in the House, and thus reinstating her as Speaker of the House.
During the Tuesday interview, Pelosi additionally cautioned against candidates touting on the campaign trail an impeachment of President Trump, despite it being an animating issue for some districts.
“I’ve just said to folks, ‘I wish you wouldn’t.’ You can talk about it in your district. In my district, it’s a very popular issue but it’s not the path that we should go on,” she said. “I’m not walking away from impeachment for political reasons and I’m not walking toward it for political reasons. I just think it’s divisive and I think what we should do is always try to unify.”
