Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) announced Thursday that he would challenge Nancy Pelosi to lead the House Democrats, despite Pelosi’s strong support among most of her caucus.
“What we’re doing right now is not working,” Ryan wrote in a letter, obtained by ABC News, announcing his bid to challenge Pelosi as minority leader to his colleagues. “Under our current leadership, Democrats have been reduced to our smallest congressional minority since 1929. This should indicate to all of us that keeping our leadership team completely unchanged will simply lead to more disappointment in future elections.”
Ryan is the first challenger Pelosi has faced for the position since 2010, when Democrats lost their majority in the House.
“Without even asking anybody for a vote, I have over two-thirds of the caucus supporting me,” Pelosi said in response to a question about potential challengers earlier Thursday.
Captain Missed-the-Point needs to calm the fuck down and realize the biggest problem is the consistent, epidemic failure of the Dems as a party to focus on state elections. TIP O’NEIL TOLD YOU WHAT’S WHAT AND WHERE IT’S AT, FUCKERS. GET A CLUE.
Edit: Frankly, I would really REALLY like to see TPM and Vox do some in depth analysis and reporting on this phenomenon as it is precisely what is holding back liberals/progressives and our policies despite our demographic advantages.
Maybe he could replace Steny Hoyer as whip. No time to fuck around with new blood as leader.
… going with a hard pass on this guy.
Tim Ryan is from Ohio. Nancy Pelosi is from California. On the one hand, if leadership is responsible for losses, then he does not seem to be doing a bang up job in Ohio. On the other hand, having someone who is demonstrably knowledgeable about swing states where the party has difficulty could be a plus, but most of that stuff is done at the party level. Ryan was an absolutely stalwart and vocal and eloquent opponent of the Iraq War but has been a little wobbly on some social issues (maybe not recently, I don’t know). He would have been a better candidate for senate than Strickland. I just don’t know if he has the organizational chops for this job that Pelosi obviously does. Pelosi has shown that she can work with legislators of every state and political temperament.
“All politics is local.”