Following Democrat Jon Ossoff’s defeat in Georgia’s 6th congressional district special election, Nancy Pelosi was forced to defend her position as House Minority Leader and the party’s leader in Congress last week. Pelosi’s comments came following reports that senior Democrats in Washington were planning to oust the former House Speaker from her current position.
A new poll from Politico found that Pelosi remains one of the most unpopular figures in American politics, with the majority of voters thinking that she should be replaced as Democratic leader. According to the poll, 43 percent of voters think Pelosi should be replaced as Democratic leader, compared with only 26 percent who think she should remain in the post. Meanwhile, 30 percent of the voters polled say they didn’t know or didn’t have an opinion on the Democratic leader’s future.
With those figures in mind, it’s easy to understand why some Washington Democrats are ready to oust Pelosi. However, the same poll found that she still remains popular with Democratic voters, who aren’t ready to dump Pelosi just yet. Just 27 percent of Democrats want to see Pelosi replaced as the party’s leader in the House, as opposed to the 41 percent who want her to remain.
“I am a master legislator”: A defiant @NancyPelosi says she has no plans to step down from leadership https://t.co/xzDjizyBi5 pic.twitter.com/BtDFqjwZKh
— POLITICO (@politico) June 23, 2017
In terms of Pelosi’s favorability ratings, 31 percent of voters view Pelosi favorably, compared with 46 percent who view her unfavorably. With those figures taken into consideration, Pelosi’s unfavorable rating is second-worst among political leaders tested in the poll, whereas 48 percent of voters view President Donald Trump unfavorably.
According to CNN , following Jon Ossoff’s aforementioned defeat in Georgia’s 6th congressional district special election earlier this month, calls began, again, within some corners of the Democratic caucus for Pelosi to step aside as the party’s leader in the House, following a campaign which saw Republicans tie Ossoff to Pelosi’s Californian liberal agenda.
Group of Democrats meet to brainstorm whether there’s a way to force House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi out https://t.co/ptCG8eGi0A pic.twitter.com/wzKo3JZHgF
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) June 23, 2017
Whilst there may be support amongst voters for a change in Democratic leadership, it doesn’t look likely to happen anytime soon. Following the defeat in Georgia, Pelosi insisted that she would remain in place as the House Minority Leader, claiming that she still has the “overwhelming” support of the Democratic caucus. At the same time, there are currently no clear challengers to Pelosi’s leadership within the party, and any previous challengers have struggled to pick up anywhere near the level of support needed to oust Pelosi.
[Featured Image by Alex Wong/Getty Images]