Despite a night of devastating losses for her party, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi will not be deterred from passing the Build Back Better social spending package.
“The people have spoken,” Pelosi said of Democratic former Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s loss to Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin. “With that said, Terry McAuliffe is a great leader. He was a great governor of the state,” she continued, denying that McAuliffe’s loss would “change the agenda for the House.”
“The people have spoken,” Pelosi says of the Virginia results.
Asked if Dems’ loss will change their agenda in Congress, she replies: “No, no.” pic.twitter.com/OvPs4ZRm5B
— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) November 3, 2021
Democrats have billed the Build Back Better Act, a $1.75 trillion social spending package, as “historic” and “transformational.” However, left-wingers and moderates have not agreed on key provisions addressing paid leave, renewable energy and the tax code. As a result, left-wing representatives have refused to vote for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which passed the Senate in June in a bipartisan 69-30 vote.
The day before the election, Democratic Virginia Sen. Mark Warner blamed the intra-party deadlock for McAuliffe’s flagging poll numbers.
“As someone who wished we would have voted on the bipartisan infrastructure bill in September… that would have really helped Terry McAuliffe a lot, if we were able to notch that win,” he said on MSNBC.
Youngkin’s win was not the only blow to the Democrats, however. The race between Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and Republican businessman Jack Ciatarelli remains too close to call, although Murphy has slowly gained ground as late-reporting counties tally their votes. Elsewhere, Minneapolis voters rejected a referendum question that would have abolished their city’s police department, and Buffalo socialist India Walton lost to incumbent Mayor Byron Brown, who conducted a write-in campaign after losing to Walton in a primary. (RELATED: Ilhan Omar Votes To Abolish Minneapolis Police Department And Replace It With Department Of Public Safety)
Citing the far left’s Buffalo and Minneapolis defeats, Democratic Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips urged his party to moderate.
“Once again, the electoral evidence indicates that America is not as progressive as socialist members believe it is,” he told The Hill. “And yes, I believe passing the BIF [Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework] would have made a difference, but not enough to change the results based on what I’m seeing.”
In response, an aide to one left-wing member is blaming moderates, asserting that placing blame on the Congressional Progressive Caucus is “absurd.”
“If you want to fault D.C., fault the tiny group of conservative Dems who intentionally blocked childcare, prescription drug reform, universal pre-k, and paid leave all fall.”If you want to fault D.C., fault the tiny group of conservative Dems who intentionally blocked childcare, prescription drug reform, universal pre-k, and paid leave all fall,” the aide told Politico.
