Speaker Emirata Nancy Pelosi offered a glass-half-full view of the Democratic Party after election results dealt a substantial blow to party morale.
In her first long-form interview since the election on Nov. 5, Pelosi spoke with the New York Times about the many causes of President-elect Donald Trump’s triumph over Vice President Kamala Harris, and the down-ballot outcomes as well. She repeatedly refuted evidence that the Democratic party has lost support among working-class voters, and insisted the election was not as detrimental to the party as a whole as has been reported.
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“I mean, what we call our frontline candidates, by and large, won in places where the Republicans were raging with their vote for the president and the Senate,” Pelosi said. “The House members did very well. As I say, it’s still a possibility that we can win, but just that it’s a possibility tells you that the House ran against the tide.”
She also opposed the analysis of some in her party, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who wrote the Democratic Party had “abandoned working class people” in his post-election reaction.
Harris struggled with voters who make under $100,000 compared to President Joe Biden. In 2020, he secured 56% of the vote among that group. Harris lost the group to Trump 50% to 46%. This is one in a long list of subgroups of working-class voters who swung toward the Republican ticket.
“I don’t respect [Sanders] saying that the Democratic Party has abandoned the working-class families,” Pelosi said. “That’s where we are. For example, under President Biden, you see the rescue package, money in the pockets of people, shots in the arm, children in school safely, working people back to work.”
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When asked why people making under $100,000 didn’t vote for Harris explained it with “cultural” issues – “Guns, God and gays.” However, she relented that cultural issues cannot entirely explain the result, saying the perception of the Biden administration’s policies played into Harris’s struggle.
Pelosi also played off the erosion of support for Democrats in reliably blue areas, such as California and New York City’s boroughs.
California trended red, despite being a Democratic stronghold and Harris’s home state. Ten out of 58 counties flipped from blue in 2020 to red in 2024, including Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Fresno, and Butte counties. Many are in southern California, close to the border.
This California electoral map should deeply concern @TheDemocrats leaders, not just because of the red shift, but more so because California is @KamalaHarris HOME STATE. Former AG & former U.S. Senator no less!
CA should have become much BLUER if anything. What went wrong? pic.twitter.com/WOLRvwccVt
— Houman David Hemmati, MD, PhD (@houmanhemmati) November 7, 2024
In New York, Democrats did well in close House races, flipping three seats on election night in addition to the win secured in a special election earlier in the year. However, support for the top of the ticket was down in New York City boroughs Queens and the Bronx, an area that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) represents. In 2020, Biden won with 84.1% of the vote in the Bronx. In 2024, Harris won with only 67.5% in the same area.
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Pelosi sidestepped mention of California in the interview, and downplayed that this erosion of support in Queens and Brooklyn is anything more than a strategic decision on the part of Democrats.
“We won four seats in New York. You need to focus where you need to focus to win. And the focus was in those seats,” Pelosi said. “New York knew it was going to go for the Democrat. It was going to go for Kamala Harris. So, within the state, we were focusing on how we increase the number of House races. So we go to those districts. And we go to those districts, and we won those districts.”
Notably, Pelosi also credited Biden’s decision to step down as the nominee in July as the reason Democrats were able to “save so many House seats.” Control of the House has not yet been decided but is trending toward Republicans. Pelosi insisted there is still a chance they could win the majority in the lower chamber. Regardless, Republicans won control of the White House and Senate, and will enjoy a conservative-majority Supreme Court.
Despite the negative headwinds for Democrats, Pelosi struck a positive tone when speaking about the future of the party, saying, “It’s a pretty exciting road ahead.” The general tone of analysts and party members has been more cautious, with many opining it will be a long road ahead to recover from this election.
“It will be a big challenge,” former chairman of the House Democratic Caucus Rep. John Larson (D-CT) said.
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Democratic strategist Chris Kofinis called the election an “unmitigated disaster,” according to ABC News.
“That was a wholesale repudiation of the Democratic message, the Democratic strategy, Harris’ candidacy. There is no way to sugarcoat what an abject disaster this was,” Kofinis said.