Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio sounded the alarm for Democrats after Trump’s win. He challenged Nancy Pelosi for leadership of House Democrats because he was afraid their party would be relegated to attracting only rich coastal elites and those dependent on government.
For his trouble, Ryan was accused of sexism.
Now the Democrats have voted to keep Nancy Pelosi as House minority leader. In other words, they learned nothing from the election.
The Hill reports:
Pelosi holds onto leadership
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Wednesday fended off a challenge to her long leadership reign, defeating Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) in a closed-door vote prompted largely by Donald Trump’s unlikely ascension to the White House.
Pelosi got 134 votes to Ryan’s 63 — winning 68 percent of the votes after declaring before the election that she had the support of two-thirds of the caucus. The victory sends a message that while there’s a growing appetite for major changes in the party’s leadership structure and messaging tactics, it’s not strong enough to loosen Pelosi’s grip on a liberal-heavy group that’s rarely challenged her authority.
Ryan and his supporters had argued that the Democrats’ grim performance in this year’s elections — the latest in a string of cycles planting Republicans firmly in the majority — was a clear signal that Pelosi’s leadership strategy has failed to attract the broad coalition of voters required to return the Speaker’s gavel to the Democrats’ hands.
The critics pointed, in particular, to the party’s alienation of the middle-class Rust Belt workers, who flocked to Trump and secured victories for a long list of vulnerable Republicans down the ballot. Ryan, who represents an Ohio manufacturing district that’s struggled to keep pace with globalization and rebound from the Great Recession, said he was the right fit to make inroads with those voters.
Republicans are pretty happy about this and they should be:
Congrats @NancyPelosi! There's no one we would rather have leading @HouseDemocrats! #StandWithNancy #ThanksHouseDems pic.twitter.com/ZKqEmGHXsr
— NRCC (@NRCC) November 30, 2016
