Pelosi doesn't mind Democrats candidates opposing her speaker bid

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Pelosi's House leadership emerging as key 2018 midterm issue

Many Democratic congressional candidates say they will not support Pelosi as House leader; Larry Sabato shares insight.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said on Tuesday her party will take the control of the House in the upcoming midterm elections.

The California Democrat, who will almost without a doubt become the speaker of the chamber if Democrats win the election, said she doesn’t mind her fellow Democrats campaigning in part by opposing her.

“Do whatever you have to do, just win, baby,” she told the audience at the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School.

"Do whatever you have to do, just win, baby."

— House Minority Speaker Nancy Pelosi

REPUBLICANS TO USE PELOSI AGAINST VULNERABLE DEMS IN MIDTERM ELECTIONS

The GOP has long tried to paint Pelosi as the flag-bearer of the party and such efforts have escalated in recent months amid the final stretch of the midterm elections.

The strategy to tie the minority speaker to other Democrats was tried last year, when Republicans depicted Jon Ossoff, a Democrat who eventually lost the special election in Georgia’s highly-contested 6th House district, as someone who would get to Congress only to follow Pelosi’s command. GOP strategists claim the accusation ultimately won the race for the Republicans.

But even within the party, Pelosi is facing tough opposition. In addition to multiple Congressional candidates coming out to oppose her bid for speaker, a rebel group of Democrats in the U.S. House pushed a petition to change the party rules for electing their speaker and effectively stop Pelosi’s chances

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Pelosi listed the legislative priorities after the election, including working on a healthcare reform, pushing for a national infrastructure plan and changing campaign finance laws.

She also promised to work with President Trump and other Republicans on issues like infrastructure, which both parties could get behind.

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But Pelosi will also be a foe of the White House, though she came up short of calling for his impeachment. “I think an impeachment, to use that word, is very divisive,” she said. “That isn’t a path that I would like to go down.”

But as the supposed leader of House Democrats, Pelosi will work to ensure documentation from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation is preserved.

She also said she wants to know what instructions investigators may have received from Trump concerning the scope of the FBI probe into Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.