House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) will regain the speaker’s gavel after the November midterm elections — at least according to the latest analysis by polling expert Larry Sabato.
Pelosi has made it clear she intends to be Speaker of the House again if Democrats win. “We will win. I will run for speaker. I feel confident about it. And my members do, too,” Pelosi told the Boston Globe earlier this year.
In February, in a show of sheer physical strength, the 78-year-old caucus leader gave a record-breaking speech on the floor of the U.S. House that lasted longer than eight hours.
The Hill reports:
University of Virginia political analyst Larry Sabato says Democrats for the first time are the favorites to retake control of the House in this year’s midterm elections.
Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the university’s Center for Politics, said Tuesday that Democrats are now “soft favorites” for control of the chamber.
“[F]or most of this election cycle the generic ballot has shown a consistent Democratic lead that suggests a very competitive battle for the majority. A high number of open seats — the highest number of any postwar election save 1992 — give Democrats many more targets than the GOP,” he wrote.
The analysis comes as Sabato shifted 17 House races in favor of Democrats, with several vulnerable Republicans including Rep. Pete Roskam (R-Ill.) seeing their races move from “likely Republican” to “toss-up” in the ratings.
Pelosi first served as Speaker of the House from 2007-2011. Her tenure was controversial, as she was noted for centralizing power, freezing out the opposition, and reneging on promises to stop corruption. Her effort to push Obamacare through the House cost her party its majority: Pelosi has never lived down her declaration that “we have to pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it.”
Democrats who have won special elections over the past few months have largely done so by promising not to back Pelosi. However, she retains a tight grip on power within her party, and no serious challenger to her leadership has yet emerged.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.