What Would It Take for Dems to Retake the House?
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said on CNN yesterday morning that Democrats have a “very excellent chance” of taking back the House in November – pointing to Mitt Romney’s selection of running mate Paul Ryan as a “pivotal” moment in the campaign.
The Democrats need to pick up 25 seats to win back the majority.
Politico’s arena asked: “Does it seem likely that the Democrats could retake the House? With a 10 percent congressional approval rating, are Americans even paying attention to House races?”
Here’s my take:
Pelosi’s dream of reclaiming the House could become Boehner’s nightmare. That’s not likely despite Mitt Romney’s fumbling campaign and various Republican candidates’ implosions on social issues, because voters tend to stick with the devils they know and vote for incumbents in the end. But it is possible that the Democrat’s could retake the House if:
- women vote in proportion to their anger over assaults on their economic and reproductive rights and health,
- progressive women go to the polls in proportions that match their 1992 “Year of the Woman” turnout,
- attempts to suppress minority and women voters do not succeed,
- Obama’s coattails are strong enough to reel in a few additional House seats for his party.
Those are big if’s. I predict Democrats have a better chance of winning a few additional seats in the Senate than taking over the House.
Thoughts? What are you seeing in the House districts where you live?
GLORIA FELDT is the New York Times bestselling author of several books including No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power, a sought-after speaker and frequent contributor to major news outlets, and the Co-Founder and President of Take The Lead. People has called her “the voice of experience,” and among the many honors she has been given, Vanity Fair called her one of America’s “Top 200 Women Legends, Leaders, and Trailblazers,” and Glamour chose her as a “Woman of the Year.”
As co-founder and president of Take The Lead, a leading women’s leadership nonprofit, her mission is to achieve gender parity by 2025 through innovative training programs, workshops, a groundbreaking 50 Women Can Change The World immersive, online courses, a free weekly newsletter, and events including a monthly Virtual Happy Hour program and a Take The Lead Day symposium that reached over 400,000 women globally in 2017.