There was much made before the election of House Democrats, and Democratic challengers, who said they would not vote for Nancy Pelosi for speaker, as a way to show they were an "independent voice" and not a "standard liberal."
The result: 8 out of 10 of these incumbent Democrats lost. Meanwhile, 100% of challenger Dems who took the same stance lost their bids as well, most by significant margins. It appears that demonizing national Democrats was not a winning strategy.
The full round-up of the anti-Pelosi Democratic losses (losers?) below the fold.
I am not going to vote for Nancy Pelosi as speaker of the House. ... Heck, she might even get sick and die.
—Bobby Bright, AL-02, lost 51-49
My candidate’s going to be somebody who’s a centrist, preferably somebody who’s going to be speaker of the entire House.
—Jim Marshall, GA-08, lost 52-47
I do think that leadership-wise the Democratic party would be better if in some of the leadership positions there were some more moderate people.
—Frank Kratovil, MD-01, lost 54-41
I’m not associated with her. She’s the speaker, but I’m an independent voice.
—Ike Skelton, MO-04, lost 50-45
I'd like to see somebody more moderate in that role. I'd like to see a Blue Dog, quite frankly, because I agree with them on most of the issues.
—Travis Childers, MS-01, lost 55-41
I will not be voting for her again.
—Gene Taylor, MS-04, lost 52-47
From what we're hearing, she's probably not going to run for speaker again. And if she does, I'm confident she's going to have opposition, and I look forward to supporting that opposition.
—Mike McIntyre, NC-07, WON 53-46
It's hard to answer a hypothetical question when you don't know who the candidates are, you don't know if she's running again.
—Mike McMahon, NY-13, lost 51-47
We'll see. We'll see what happens when the election's over and we'll look at the leadership.
—Scott Murphy, NY-20, lost 55-44
Certainly necessitate[s] new leadership in the Speaker’s position.
—Jason Altmire, PA-04, WON 51-48
And here are the Democratic challengers who had similar statements:
It’s time to have a leader of the House of Representatives who can heal the partisan divide ... Nancy Pelosi is not the person to do that.
—Patrick Miles, running in MI-03, lost 59-37
We all know Washington is broken, and I hold Nancy Pelosi accountable for that.
—Rob Miller, running in SC-02, lost 53-43
Voters in my district believe that you [Pelosi] do not represent their values.
—Brett Carter, running in TN-06, lost 67-29
Roy would not be supporting either Nancy Pelosi or John Boehner for Speaker of the House. Neither of them are in the common sense center.
—Roy Herron, running in TN-08, lost 59-38
I never once said I would support Nancy Pelosi.
—Mike Oliviero, running in WV-01, lost 50-49
Election results are the most recent I could find, and mostly are directly from online state election offices. If I missed anyone, please let me know!