Ahead of Tuesday’s elections, House Speaker saw big things coming for Democrats:
HOUSE: @SpeakerPelosi predicts Democrats pick up seats in election. ""Tonight House Democrats are further poised to expand our House majority"
— Erik Wasson (@elwasson) November 3, 2020
However, the Democrats have actually lost several House seats (and are poised to possibly lose more once some other races are settled). On a caucus call today, Nancy Pelosi tried to spin it all for her fellow Democrats:
On a caucus call, Pelosi is giving a positive assessment of the outcome of Tuesday's election, despite House Democratic losses that likely mean she will hold a smaller majority in the new Congress.
"We did not win every battle but we won the war," she said, per source
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) November 5, 2020
Pelosi told her caucus that Tuesday was a “big win” for the party. But she’s explaining the D losses by noting that 2020 was a more difficult cycle for some House Dems with Trump on ballot, particularly ones in deep red districts who in 2018 when Trump wasn't running, per sources
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) November 5, 2020
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Pelosi tried to make lemonade out of the lemons, but the truth is her party came very close to losing control of the House.
That was not the attitude prior to Tuesday. https://t.co/oOarLRtbal
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) November 5, 2020
"it's a big win for us that republicans gained seats"
— Ben McDonald (@Bmac0507) November 5, 2020
— Blaidd Drwg (@getgoins) November 5, 2020
Also, the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee blamed — you guessed it — bad polling for leading them in the wrong ideological direction:
Rep. Cheri Bustos, who chairs DCCC and has faced criticism from Dems, blamed bad polling for the outcome and for the bullish predictions headed into election day, per two sources.
"Voters looked more like 2016 than projected," Bustos told Democrats.
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) November 5, 2020
DCCC Chair BUSTOS on call w/ Dems says she’s frustrated by the bad polling and loss of good members. But she defended the strategy:
“We protected the lone firewall in our democracy” … the House majority
— Scott Wong (@scottwongDC) November 5, 2020
So maybe voters weren’t as pumped up about the Green New Deal as the Democrats thought? Go figure!
