House minority leader Nancy Pelosi had a bad day yesterday. First, Ohio representative Tim Ryan announced his candidacy for House minority leader, declaring: “Democrats have been reduced to our smallest congressional minority since 1929” under Pelosi’s leadership. Then, Pelosi’s political foes, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), mockingly endorsed her reelection bid.
Pelosi, who was elected to Congress in 1986, was speaker of the House from 2007 to 2011, then became minority leader when Democrats lost the majority in the 2010 tea-party wave. Explaining his decision to challenge Pelosi, Ryan noted that Democrats have secured the majority in just two of the past nine terms. Along with last week’s Republican victories, this “should indicate to all of us that keeping our leadership team completely unchanged will simply lead to more disappointment in future elections,” he said.
