House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told House Democrats on a conference call Tuesday that if the election were held today, Democrats would regain control of the House of Representatives, according to two Democrats who participated in the call.
Pelosi has publicly predicted that Hillary Clinton would win in November before, and has said recently that she believed the House was also in play. On Tuesday’s call she told her House colleagues that she is optimistic, especially with new polls.
But the Democratic leader also noted that the election isn’t for another four weeks and they need to continue to work hard because Republican groups will begin pouring additional resources into efforts to support GOP candidates.
Tuesday’s call concentrated on the fallout from the video that was released on Friday that showed Donald Trump using sexually aggressive and lewd language about women. Pelosi and Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, discussed their strategy in the final stretch of the campaign, sources told CNN.
House Republicans were quick to dismiss Pelosi’s latest prediction.
“Nancy Pelosi’s record of predicting House races is about as reliable as a carnival palm reader,” Katie Martin, spokeswoman for National Republican Congressional Committee told CNN.
Democrats need to pick up 30 House seats to win back the majority in the lower chamber. That is a high hurdle with a relatively small universe of competitive districts. Redistricting in states around the country have made the vast majority of House seats solidly red or solidly blue, but Democrats are now hoping that a national election featuring a GOP internal fight with Trump can put more of these areas into play.
Lujan told members there were numerous opportunities to pick up seats, and that more opportunities were coming up because of the changing dynamics at the top of the ticket.
Democrats on the call also discussed the recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showing Democrats leading Republicans in the generic ballot by a 7-point margin, 49-42%, which is the largest lead the party has held since the 2013 government shutdown. Lujan discussed a poll he commissioned that had similar results, according to the Democratic sources.
As they do on calls with rank-and-file members, Democratic leaders urged members to pay their “dues” to the DCCC — the amount each member is expected to contribute to the party’s election efforts. Although many have already sent checks, leaders are continuing to remind those who haven’t that’s it’s time to pay up.