Nancy Pelosi is 84 years old. In 2010, she led the Democratic Party to a historic loss of 63 seats in the House of Representatives. In the past, any leader who had such a terrible result would've resigned. Pelosi refused to do so and remained as Minority Leader
In 2014, Minority Leader Pelosi again led Democrats to a massive loss. In that election, Senator Mark Warner, another leading Biden Intraparty Critic almost lost to a candidate who ran no television ads. And the Pelosi-led House Caucus lost another 13 seats. Pelosi again refused to resign after suffering her second crushing defeat in three election cycles. Pelosi then claimed it wasn't a wave and said she would've left if the Democrats had won in an interview.
In 2016, as Donald Trump was losing the popular vote, the Pelosi-led House Caucus gained just 6 seats and ensured Trump would have a nearly 50 seat majority for the first two years of his term. The disastrous Trump tax cuts were a direct result of that electoral disaster. After the election, Tim Ryan (another leading Biden Intraparty Critic) challenged Pelosi and said it was time for generational change. Pelosi refused to step aside and Ryan lost the leadership vote in a landslide.
Democrats won a majority in 2018 as the public recoiled at a Trump Presidency. Then, two years later, Pelosi managed to lose 13 seats in the House of Representatives as Joe Biden was winning the Presidency and defeating an incumbent President. Democrats averted a disaster of a Republican controlled House by all of five seats on election day. After leading the Caucus to its fourth stunning defeat in ten years, Pelosi refused to step aside. An 80 year old Pelosi was re-elected along with her leadership team of 81 year old Steny Hoyer and 80 year old Jim Clyburn. No Democrat challenged this leadership team.
In 2022, Pelosi lost seats for the fifth time in 12 election cycles. She publicly refused to step aside until it became clear that she would (finally) not have the votes to be re-elected Leader. 52 year old Hakeem Jeffries was elected leader in a much needed generational change.
Pelosi however did not resign from Congress. In that term, she served as a witness when Senator Dianne Feinstein's daughter exercised her power of attorney. Pelosi then publicly said that Feinstein shouldn't resign despite her struggles with dementia. Feinstein missed over 60 votes and ground the judiciary committee to a halt. She refused to resign, and at 89 resumed a "lighter work schedule" before dying in office at age 90.
Earlier this year, a talented and ambitious young California State Senator, Scott Weiner, was positioning himself to run for Congress. Pelosi at 84 years old filed for re-election largely to try and ensure that her Congressional seat was passed on to her daughter.
Despite the hemming and hawing and two weeks of anonymous and not no anonymous potshots from his Intraparty critics, Joe Biden is tied with Trump in the polls.
Nancy Pelosi isn't some kind of electoral savant. She has, objectively, the worst electoral record of any Congressional leader in the past 100 years. She's also the person most responsible (though Steny Hoyer shouldn't escape blame on this one either) for a logjam which caused potential leaders to get frustrated and leave politics. That logjam is what caused the downright geriatric nature of our party's current leadership.
It's time for this debate to end. It's time for us to accept four truths: 1. Joe Biden is our nominee. 2. Joe Biden will win if we support him. 3. Americans don't like Kings or offices being inherited because our country was literally founded on the principle that was a bad idea. 4. Trump wants to be a King.
Let's stop taking the criticism from the peanut gallery--especially from people like Nancy Pelosi and Tim Ryan, who are experts at losing elections--seriously.