Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi weighed in on the impact Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has had on her efforts to help her party regain control of the House of Representatives this fall.
According to the California Democrat, Trump has actually helped with fundraising and grassroots mobilization.
Partial transcript as follows:
SCARBOROUGH: So, because of redistricting, because of gerrymandering, I don’t think anybody thought that the Democrats had a shot of taking the House back. Donald Trump’s changed all of that, hasn’t he?
PELOSI: Well, he has a gift that keeps on giving. Every day that he says something that helps us mobilize at the grassroots levels, raise money, message a difference a between the two parties, so he’s been good. But here’s the thing. Don’t get too carried away by the redistricting. When we took the House in 2006, which you know was not something that everyone predicted was going to happen.
SCARBOROUGH: It was a shock, yes.
PELOSI: It was a shock. We had just been the victim of a mid-decade redistricting in Texas —
SCARBOROUGH: Right.
PELOSI: — a difference of 14 seats and, nonetheless, we came in and won. So it’s an obstacle but it’s not insurmountable. And you don’t win if you don’t fight, and we’re going to fight for every seat.
SCARBOROUGH: So, how many seats would you say are up for grabs every two years, usually? Out of 435, usually isn’t it about 30-35 that really —
PELOSI: Maybe double in play. It just —
SCARBOROUGH: Depends on the environment.
PELOSI: What we need is 30 seats to win, but what I’m saying is that I think at the end of day, that being Election Day, we will have — there will be a single-digit difference. We will be single-digit ahead and they’ll be single-digit. But we will make tremendous inroads in terms of the number of Democrats in the House.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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