House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is the most conservative Democrat among her challengers in the 2018 race for reelection to her San Francisco district.
It is unlikely that Pelosi, 77, will lose, although her Democratic challengers reportedly complain she is not liberal enough for her district, especially when it comes to health care and money in politics.
While most of her challengers are Democrats, there is one Green Party candidate, and there is talk of a second Republican entering the race alongside Chase Demasi. The Democrats are attorney Stephen Jaffe (who was a Bernie Sanders supporter), Ryan Khojasteh, and Shahid Buttar. The Green Party Candidate is Barry Hermanson.
Pelosi has served her district since 1987, typically winning by margins of 70 and even 80 percentage points, notes the Sacramento Bee.
Pelosi’s challengers have argued that her focus is on national politics and that she has neglected the people of San Francisco, including Jaffe, 72, who complained to the Bee that Pelosi refused to endorse single-payer health care proposals in Congress. However, Pelosi has argued that her focus is on protecting the Affordable Care Act (or Obamacare) from being repealed by Republicans while suggesting single-payer be implemented on a state-by-state basis because it is not wanted nationally.
Many critics in her own party have complained that it is well past time that Pelosi, 77, hands the baton of leadership over to younger blood.
Among the most vocal of them is Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH), who last year launched a failed leadership bid against the minority leader.
Last week he told Fox Business Network’s Neil Cavuto that he is not interested in challenging her again. “I really don’t have any interest in running for leadership again,” Ryan told Cavuto. “I spoke my piece. I felt compelled to do it in part because no one else was going to and I felt like, you know, we needed to have a national conversation, and so I have no interest in doing it now.”
Adelle Nazarian is a politics and national security reporter for Breitbart News. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.