Pelosi Keeps Her Speaker’s Gavel

News that Pelosi ran unopposed for another term as Speaker of the House surprised progressive stalwarts.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi speaking with attendees at the 2019 California Democratic Party State Convention at the George R. Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, California. June 1, 2019. (photo: Gage Skidmore)

For a Democratic Party ostensibly celebrating a great victory, the atmosphere is rather grim on Capitol Hill. Progressive Democrats are in no mood for resting on laurels, provided there are any, and the demands for swift action are pilling up.

An autopsy of the 2020 election, in spite of the high-profile presidential election results, is revealing a country that has become much redder and a Republican Party far more diverse than many on the left realized.

The famed blue-wave failed to materialize.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats managed to keep their majority, but only barely. 27 out of 27 House races deemed toss-ups by pollsters were won by Republicans, in as much of a referendum on bad polling as we are likely ever to get.

In 2020, as in 2016, pollsters seem over-anxious to put their mistakes behind them. The media seems more than willing to move on and equally determined not to hold anyone to account for misleading the public, however unintentionally.

In addition to cleaning up on the toss-ups, Republicans held their own and even flipped some seats deemed to lean heavily Democratic by pollsters prior to the election. The majority of this…