Nancy Pelosi ‘Has Taken Decidedly Conservative Positions’ On Key Issues, Says Her Primary Challenger

San Francisco attorney Shahid Buttar is formally mounting a primary challenge against Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, reports The Hill.

Highlighting the divide between progressive activists and the Democratic Party establishment, Buttar’s insurgent campaign will challenge Pelosi for adopting conservative positions on key issues such as climate change, criminal justice, health care, and surveillance.

“Each of those are areas in which the Speaker has taken decidedly conservative positions, just by leading the Democratic Party,” Buttar told The Hill.

“Our campaign essentially seeks to liberate the voice of the country’s most progressive city,” he said.

An immigrant to the United States, the 44-year-old progressive of Pakistani descent has already raised $300,000, $50,000 of which was raised in November.

The fundraising numbers will not determine the outcome of the race, Buttar suggested, acknowledging that Pelosi is one of the most prolific fundraisers in the Democratic Party.

“We only have to raise the money we need to get across the city,” he said, noting that the election is still months away.

Pelosi enjoys the support of the Democratic Party establishment, but she has long feuded with the progressive wing of her caucus, led by New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

According to Buttar, his and other progressives’ goal is “to seize the party from the corporate interests that have ruled it for the last 30 years.”

Buttar’s announcement comes on the heels of Pelosi asking key House committees to draft articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump.

The investigation into Trump is supported by the vast majority of Democratic voters and by a majority of Democrats in the House of Representatives. However, Pelosi is not handling the process adequately, according to Buttar.

The insurgent candidate said that Pelosi and other Democrats’ decision to lead a narrowly-focused impeachment inquiry, with Trump’s allegedly inappropriate contacts with the Ukrainian government at the core of the investigation, will embolden future presidents to violate the Constitution.

According to Buttar, Pelosi should have focused on Trump’s corruption and on his violations of the Emoluments Clause.

“The idea that the impeachment inquiry fails to include the emoluments violations does several things. The first thing, and the most problematic, it invites future corruption from other presidents emboldened by the impunity for corruption,” he said.

House Democrats want to impeach Trump for allegedly freezing — and threatening to cut — military aid to Ukraine, in an apparent effort to pressure the eastern European country’s government to investigate Trump’s political rivals — former Vice President Joe Biden, among others.

Although the party establishment is apparently supportive of Pelosi, the people are not, polls suggest. According to the RealClearPolitics average of polling data, around 37 percent of the electorate views the speaker favorably.