Pelosi details her plans for House majority

PHILADELPHIA — Rep. Nancy Pelosi is laser-focused.

With 21 days until the midterm elections, the California Democrat and House minority leader is crisscrossing the country fundraising and rallying the Democratic troops, all while plotting her return to the speakership.

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Electing more women is central to Pelosi’s mission. Of the 84 “Red to Blue” candidates whom Democrats see as top pickups in races to win the House majority, female Democratic candidates are running in 43 of them.

“It’s not a zero-sum game,” she said in an interview, talking about the need to add more women to the ranks of Congress. “We should celebrate the success because that opens another door.”

Of course, Pelosi was here in 1992, the last “Year of the Woman” election. But since then the number of women serving in Congress hasn’t grown exponentially. Pelosi is hoping to take advantage of the groundswell of Democratic women getting more politically active — both in contributing to candidates and in running for office — to change that. Now, she said, “is the time women will cross the threshold. … There is nothing more wholesome in America than increased participation of women.”

Democratic women are favored to win in 68 of the 211 House races they are running in, and could add 45 women to their ranks if they do well in competitive races, according to POLITICO’s race ratings.

Over the weekend, Pelosi headed right into the heart of where Democratic women are poised to make gains — Pennsylvania. The state’s congressional delegation — 18 House members and two senators — is currently all male, but the Keystone State is now expected to elect women to its delegation for the first time since 2015. In all, seven women, some of whom face a steep climb in the general election, made it past the primaries.

Pelosi was campaigning Saturday with two who are leading in their races. Madeleine Dean, a state legislator, is favored to win in the 4th Congressional District, and Mary Gay Scanlon, a member of the Wallingford-Swarthmore School Board, is likely to represent the 5th Congressional District.

“What a time for Pennsylvania to make up for lost time,” said Pelosi, who was speaking with Dean and Scanlon at an event for Emerge Pennsylvania, a statewide network for getting Democratic women to run for office. The room was packed with more than 50 women, including some who had gone through Emerge’s candidate training, former candidates who had run, and others willing to brave the rainy, cold weather to get a chance to hear Pelosi tell her story.

And while Pelosi and the candidates focused on the gains women are making this election cycle, one woman — who described herself as a former sex worker who is also transgender and now works in advocacy — served as a reminder of how distant the goal can be. She questioned how those who don’t have a law degree or other more typical experiences that lead to public office can still make a difference for there to be true representation for all people.

Both candidates, and Pelosi, said they believed in all voices being heard and represented, and they encouraged her to run for office.

Of course, women are just part of the equation. Democrats are also going to need big money as they try to eke out wins in districts that lean Republican.

Pelosi is doing just that. In the third quarter, Pelosi will report raising $34.2 million for Democrats, including $30.5 million for the DCCC. She is by far the biggest source of cash for House Democrats and House Democratic candidates. During her Pennsylvania swing, Pelosi attended an event for retiring Rep. Bob Brady and also a fundraiser for Dean in the Philadelphia suburbs, drawing contributors from the Pakistani community and members of PAKPAC, a group that educates Pakistani-Americans on policy issues.

Pelosi’s return to the top of a Democratic-majority leadership was anything but assured several months ago, with potential challengers lurking and unrest in Democratic ranks over what some said was a need for new and younger leadership. But as Democrats appear positioned to take back the House, Pelosi has solidified her support among her caucus and has begun mapping out their priorities with her colleagues.

Similar to 2007 — the first time Pelosi took the speaker’s gavel — House Democrats plan to introduce a package for campaign finance reform as their first bill of the 116th Congress.

“People believe you that if you want to reduce the goal of money in politics … then they trust you to do the right thing,” Pelosi said in an interview in a downtown Philly food court before heading out for a trio of campaign events.

After that, Pelosi said, Democrats are looking at lowering drug prices and then will try to work with Republicans on a gun background check bill and protecting so-called Dreamers, undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children.

And while oversight is a key for Democrats, Pelosi said she isn’t in favor of a “pound of flesh” club. In particular, she said, she would like Democrats to make sure there is integrity in the U.S. voting system and allow for standards to be put in place that states could implement.