Nancy Pelosi: Can she take back the Speaker's gavel after Democratic House victory in the Midterms?

Nancy Pelosi helped Democrats win back control of the House. But will they return the favour in her bid for House Speaker?

Nancy Pelosi defied her Republican foes on election night when Democrats took back control of the US House of Representatives after serving eight years as the minority party.

The House Democratic leader made history in 2007 for becoming the first woman appointed as Speaker of the House, a coveted position that places her second-in-command after the vice president in the unfortunate case of emergency presidential succession. Ms Pelosi held on to her House Speaker role until 2011, when a Republican insurgency took back the chamber and bumped Democrats down into the minority party.

Ms Pelosi has not shied away from her intentions to seek another run for House Speaker. If chosen, she would be the first House Speaker in more than 50 years to be re-elected into the position after losing it. The last House Speaker to do this was former Texas Democratic Congressman Sam Rayburn in 1953.

Although her efforts in leading the Democrats to victory puts her in a desirable position, Ms Pelosi’s hopes for the taking back the gavel might be hindered. Republicans have launched a series of attacks on the House Democratic leader. President Donald Trump accused Ms Pelosi for having a “socialist agenda,” and other conservative leaders labelled her as the leader of an “unhinged mob.” These Republican attacks seemed to be working: Exit polls showed 55 per cent of American voters disapprove of the Mr Pelosi. That is the same number of Americans who disapprove of Trump.

Democrats, however, found a way to manoeuvre those anti-Pelosi campaigns to their benefit. As Republicans attempted to link Democratic candidates with Ms Pelosi in their campaign ads, Democrats—with the liberal veteran’s blessings—in red-to-blue districts followed through with the anti-Pelosi playbook. Nearly 50 Democrats have publicly stated throughout the campaign trail that they will not support Ms Pelosi’s bid for House Speaker, citing an urgency for new party leadership. It worked for Rep. Conor Lamb in his narrow victory in the 2018 March special election in a deeply conservative Pennsylvania district.

The midterm election results also ushered in a new era of American politics with a record-breaking number of 100 women in Congress. This has served a fuel and momentum for Ms Pelosi’s quest for continued Democratic leadership. “Women come up to me all the time to say ‘thank you for fighting,’” she said. “I don’t want women to think if you get attacked, you run away.”

Some Democratic congressional members have already declared their interest in challenging Ms Pelosi for the House Speaker bid. Among those are Democratic Representatives Tim Ryan of Ohio, who had lost to the Californian liberal for the House minority leader position, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer and House Minority Assistant James Clyburn.

Democrats—specifically, progressives—are also not too happy with the possibility of Ms Pelosi as House Speaker. After the election results showed a Democratic-controlled House, Ms Pelosi told a crowd of supporters at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) rally that “we will have accountability and strive for bipartisanship,” before citing the Founding Fathers.

“We have a bipartisan marketplace of ideas that makes our democracy strong,” Ms Pelosi added. “We have all had enough with division.”

But her constituents, and other progressives, don’t believe her “bipartisanship” rhetoric represents them. “Pelosi is promising bipartisanship and Dems are nowhere near winning yet. They’ve learned nothing,” wrote Nora Biette Timmons on Twitter.

Another Twitter user said: “Either straight-up resign, or tell me when in the last decade Republicans have showed even the remotest spirit of bipartisanship when they held the reins.”

The 78-year-old San Francisco liberal has also received criticism for holding back on impeachment proceedings for Mr Trump. Throughout the midterms campaign, Ms Pelosi has argued against putting the president’s impeachment as the Democrat’s first priority.

“I don’t think there’s any impeachment unless it’s bipartisan,” she said. “Our priority is to get results for the American people.”

The House Democratic Leader said impeachment proceedings could become a possibility depending on what new indictments or findings come out of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia investigation, and whether or not they can gain Republican support.

Regardless, Ms Pelosi has promised that the main priority for Democrats would be to restore an “honest government.” The House will be reportedly seeking out Trump’s tax returns.

Ms Pelosi, however, still has her loyal allies.

“Obviously, you don’t fire the coach after you win World Series,” California Democratic Congressman Brad Sherman said.

For Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna, Ms Pelosi is an emblem of the progressive policies the Obama Administration laid out—from the Affordable Care Act to the 2009 Stimulus Bill.

“To attack her is to reject so much of the agenda that President Obama passed,” said Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), a young progressive Congress member who is one of Pelosi’s staunchest defenders. “She’s a symbol. If you believe in the ACA, if you believe in Dodd-Frank, if you believe in the stimulus bill ... how can you not respect Pelosi’s leadership?”

Ms Pelosi has been adamant about preventing the repeal and replacement of the ACA—it’s one of the primary reasons why she’s running for House Speaker.

“If Hillary had won and the Affordable Care Act was protected — I feel very proprietary about the Affordable Care Act,” Pelosi said in an interview with Rolling Stone. “She’d be a woman in charge, the Affordable Care Act [would be] protected. I could have happily gone home. It’s just a question of, ‘Who can fight this man who’s in the White House? Who really knows the territory?’ None of us is indispensable, but some of us have more experience and confidence in how to get the job done.”

Mr Trump, himself, has even congratulated the San Francisco Democrat for her victory and said she was deserving of the House Speaker title.

“In all fairness, Nancy Pelosi deserves to be chosen Speaker of the House by the Democrats,” Trump tweeted. “She has earned this great honor!”

The current Speaker of the House is Republican Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. That will change when Ms Pelosi or a Democratic challenger wins the majority of votes for the House Speaker bid through a public roll vote—by both Democrats and Republicans— in early January.

But one thing is for certain: Ms Pelosi leading the way to a Democrat majority House has only helped her quest for a second go as House Speaker. This can be seen and heard on Tuesday night when Ms Pelosi walked onto the stage at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee watch party, only to hear one word chanted continuously: “Speaker!”