Democrats in California are losing patience with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a new poll suggests.
A poll conducted earlier this month by UC Berkeley’s Institute for Governmental Studies shows that more California Democrats support the idea of replacing Pelosi as leader of House Democrats than allowing her to remain in that role.
According to the poll, which surveyed 1,200 registered Democrats in all, if Democrats win the House in 2018, 44 percent said they would want someone other than Pelosi chosen as Speaker. Thirty percent said they would want Pelosi to continue leading the party while 26 percent said they had no opinion.
Support for Pelosi is even weaker if Democrats remain in the minority. Fifty percent of respondents said that Pelosi should be replaced as House Minority Leader if Democrats fail to regain control of the House. Thirty-one percent said Pelosi should remain as House Minority Leader, and 19 percent had no opinion.
The poll, which was conducted through Sept. 5, reflects a growing sense of frustration with Pelosi and other Democratic party leaders. While considered one of the party’s best fundraisers and organizers, Pelosi has lost support among a growing number of rank-and-file House Democrats who believe that leadership has grown stale and out of touch.
In June, CNN reported that House Democrats were for the first time publicly questioning whether Pelosi should continue to serve as Minority Leader. New York Rep. Kathleen Rice went on the record, saying “it’s time for Nancy Pelosi to go, and the entire leadership team.”
Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton offered a similar statement.
“This is certainly something that we have to discuss because it’s clear that, I think, across the board in the Democratic Party we need new leadership. It’s time for a new generation of leadership in the party,” he told CNN at the time.
Mark DiCamillo, the director of the UC Berkeley poll, said that the poll shows that California Democrats are beginning to see Pelosi as “a drag in their quest to retake the House.”
“What California Democrats see is that Pelosi’s image in other parts of the country is not positive,” DiCamillo told the Sacramento Bee.
“Their main frustration is with what’s going on in Washington,” he added. “They don’t like the situation and they want to change it. Anything they can do to bring that about is helpful.”